I am Naruto
by Zagger the Bloody Angel
Summary: One fateful night, a famed man said to have brought chakra to their world gives one final gift to a young boy. But will it be enough in the end to save those he cares for?
1. Prologue

'It has been so long since I've seen my pupil's children. It seems their clans are at war with one another now despite being part of the same village. Then again, there is only one left of the Senju... No, two left. The young Kyuubi vessel.' An elderly man with gray hair thought to himself as he slunk in the dark allies of Konoha's slums.

Dressing in all black, wearing an equally black cloak with a hood covering his head, the man was quite mysterious but enough light shined on his face to show his grey hair and aged face.

He was here as he wanted to pass on his legacy to the other child of prophecy as fate was keeping him alive just for that purpose. Soon as he arrived, he had a distinct feeling that he was being followed, but he could find the one that was following him. Still, he needed to be here and finish his last purpose so he could finally be released from this world.

The first seed he had planted was in a young boy in the Rain years back. But now that boy was heading the Akatsuki, bent on showing the world his power and bringing it peace.

'I should teach the boy a lesson. He knows nothing of the power of the Rinnegan. If he did, he would have not fallen prey to the Uchiha's will and would have succeeded him as the Akatsuki's leader.' The old man thought to himself as his purplish-grey eyes scanned the darkness.

"Where is the boy? He isn't home, but he isn't around here?" He asked himself as he got tired of searching for the young blonde that destiny had fated for him to implanted the last seed of his power.

He found it ironic that the power would be given to the younger brother's family, which he had stated was better suited for bringing peace to the world. But now, he would be permanently putting an end to the possibility of their bloodline to continue as his own would be placed over it.

There was the notion that he could just go out and into the open to find the boy, who was probably enjoying the festivities. It, however, would be too big of a risk as the ninjas there could sense his power and deem him a possible threat to the village, so he had to stay out of sight.

But why exactly where they throwing a festival on this night in October, exactly twenty-two days before Halloween or any other major events he could think of?

Then it hit him. Tonight was the night that the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, defeated the nine tailed fox Madara had sent to destroy their village.

Fate had an odd and cruel sense of humor as this was the very night that he sealed this very seed away, his brother and one of three that possessed the Rinnegan and could pass it to another. His brother was more then willing, unlike their sister, to be sealed away for that purpose and await the person he would grant his power.

Sighing as he continued through the dark allies to avoid detection, there were a few people walking through them as well. What caught his attention was the amount of blood he saw splattered on their clothes.

Narrowing his eyes, he didn't bother with them as it would do best not to draw attention to him and walk towards where he had saw them come from.

What he saw there, was not what he expected.

A young boy, the very one he had been looking for, was covered in blood, his own, and was trembling as the last man stood over him before kicking him. "No good demon! Why did you have to take away everyone I love?!"

Seeing the condition of the boy, he knew there wasn't much time to act and he would have to unveil his power, despite knowing he had been followed.

Raising one hand towards the person who stood over the blonde haired Kyuubi vessel before muttering two words. "Shinra Tensei."

The man was dead soon as he was picked from the ground and slammed through the alley wall and six feet into the ground, shattering almost every single bone in his body and splintering them into his vital organs.

As soon as he acted, the one that had been following him appeared only feet behind him, a wakizashi pointed straight towards the back of his throat. "Hold it right there."

The elderly man only chuckled for a moment before he began to mentally count in his head. As he reached one, he spoke in a very apathetic tone. "And why should I? You cannot do anything to me."

The young man growled before trying to shove the blade forward, only meaning for a shallow cut, however the old man suddenly turned around; his hood falling off to show just how old he was and his grey eyes. Before the young man could react, he suddenly felt himself pushed with unbelievable force by absolutely nothing and slammed into the wall.

But as this happened, the young man turned into a plum of smoke as another appeared ten feet in front of the old man, not even stunned by his almost skeleton like face as his red eyes burned behind his mask. "It seems that you have the ability push and possibly pull objects by using gravity. Not a bad trick and a very effective move."

Seeing his red eyes, the elderly man only chuckled more. "Ah, so you're an Uchiha. No wonder why you would stop me from helping this poor Senju."

Quickly gagging the shock in the young man's eyes, he realized that it wasn't common knowledge that the Kyuubi vessel was a direct descendant of the First Hokage. He knew as he paid extra close attention to his student's families. "Hm, it seems is lineage was kept a secret from him and all those around him. I have to credit the Hokage for a good cover-up."

Regaining his composure, the young Uchiha responded as his Sharingan spun as it focused on the old man, making sure he didn't try anything. "Why are you here and how do you know all this?"

The old man shrugged before turning towards the young blonde and reached into his pocket and dug into it. "I have no time to explain to you. This is my last duty before leaving this world."

As he neared Naruto, the young Uchiha reacted and flew between the old man and the Kyuubi vessel, only to be hit by a gravity push and slammed painfully into the ground.

Lifting the boy's head up like a doll, the elder man flinched as the boy was beaten worse then he thought. Still, the fox inside of him seemed to be doing its job. "Good, it isn't awake. That will make this easier."

Pulling a small seed out of his pocket, he forcefully put it into the young boy's mouth and made him swallow it, assisting him along the way by rubbing his throat.

After a full minute and seeing he was going to keep it down, the old man sighed peacefully as he noticed that the Uchiha was pulling himself out of the crater he had created and crawling towards them. It didn't matter now as he was finished.

Seeing his very own hand beginning to deteriorate in front of him, the old man smiled peacefully. "Use this gift to bring this world peace it deserves, Namikaze Senju Naruto."

In a burst of dust, the elderly man was finally taken to the next world. It swirled around the young Naruto for a moment before fading away.

Having seen all of this from a distance, another old man sighed as he jumped into the alley before picking the young boy up and looking towards the Uchiha. "Itachi, you are dismissed for the rest of the week. Get some rest and forget that this ever happened."

Before the Uchiha could respond, the Sandaime Hokage was gone in a swirl of leaves, heading for the hospital to get Naruto the medical treatment he needed.

* * *

"WHY AM I IN THE HOSPITAL AGAIN?!" Naruto's voice sounded through the hospital the next morning as the eight year old boy didn't understand why he was here.

This is also what the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha was greeted to as he opened the door, to see a female medic ninja, failing to pacify the young boy as he tried to find a pair of clothes so he could get out of there.

A large sweat dropped fell from the back of his head as he saw this, but it quickly passed as it was a regular thing as Naruto never did like the hospital. 'Probably too many bad memories of how he got here in the first place.'

It wasn't as if he was constantly sent to the hospital as he was only there once a month, ten of the times during the year were his own doing from his training. The other times, however were always on his birthday and/or a special time in the village and he was caught on his own.

Sighing as he knew how to deal with this and had brought some clothes for Naruto, Sarutobi would have spoken until his eyes met Naruto's.

He dropped the clothes he was carrying as his entire body froze, knowing the eyes all too well. 'So it is... He is a chosen one and a holder of the Rinnegan. But why bring more torment onto the boy? Surely there could be a better to give this power to, could there?'

As he dozed off, the medic left as Naruto went straight for the clothes, just a white t-shirt with an orange spiral and a pair of long blue shorts, and put them on. Soon as they were on, he grabbed the third's attention with his boisterous voice. "Hey old man! Thanks for the clothes!"

"Don't worry about it, Naruto." Sarutobi spoke as if nothing was wrong, knowing the blonde wanting nothing to remind him of what happened. Still, he needed to be informed about the sudden change of his eyes.

Having a decent idea, he decided on an elaborate plan to explain to Naruto about his new eyes and abilities. He also realized that with this sudden change, that the boy would have to have a lot of super vision as there were some factions in Konoha that wanted nothing to do with the boy, both civilian and ninja.

Glad that the majority of the ninja community held the boy in high respect and the majority of civilians mostly ignored the boy, Sarutobi summoned a mirror out of thin air. "Naruto, there is something I must tell you about what happened last night.

The sudden darkening of Naruto's face told the third he didn't want to go over it, but Sarutobi wasn't going to let it stop him. "Naruto, you need to hear this as this is a sudden change in your very own body and can become a great gift if you can use it correctly."

Hearing the gift portion, Naruto was far more interested now although he didn't understand what it had to do with the night before. "What is the gift, old man?"

Chuckling lightly for a moment, the third sighed before shaking his head slightly. "Just after you went unconscious, a man arrived and bestowed his own power onto you after taking care of the last person. What he did, however, is slightly alter your own being so that you would receive a power gift and curse. Naruto, I want you to take a look at your eyes with this mirror. It will help me explain."

Doing as the old man asked, Naruto took the mirror from Sarutobi and gazed into it so he could see his face, only to drop the mirror as he saw his new eyes. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY EYES?!"

As Naruto started to panic, he was calmed down as the third placed his hand onto the boy's shoulder. Once he was down to a reasonable level, Sarutobi continued on with his explanation. "Those eyes are known as the Rinnegan, said to be the most powerful of the three Dōjutsu in this world."

Seeing Naruto's face suddenly light up, knowing about both the Hyuuga's and Uchiha's despite not knowing their clan names, Sarutobi shook his head. "However, there is a curse to the eyes. One who possesses the eyes have the power to change the world. The power gets to their heads and they lose sight and end up changing the world to a darker place."

"It isn't well known, but the dark ages long before shinobi came into being was brought on by the first wielder of the Rinnegan. But it was also the next wielder of it to bring forth the age of shinobi, bringing the world out of darkness." Sarutobi finished, hoping Naruto would understand the impact.

It seemed Naruto did as his eyes widened for a moment before he picked up the mirror, which surprisingly didn't shatter, and looked into it, staring into his new eyes. After a few moments, the third was about to take it away as Naruto's hand tightly clinched.

But before he could, Naruto suddenly gave him the biggest smile he could give. "Don't worry about that old man! I'll only use this power to protect those who I care for because that's my way, believe it!"

It took a few seconds to register, but after it did the third couldn't help but start laughing. He should have never doubted about telling the boy about his new powers. He was so pure of heart that the amount of darkness surrounding him did not matter. He would find the single ray of light and use it to extinguish the darkness.

Calming down, he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulders before leading him to the door. "That's my boy. Now how about I take you out for some ramen to explain some of the new powers you will have."

"I don't think he's qualified as I am to do that." A voice suddenly spoke from within Naruto's mind.

The boy panicked soon as he heard it and screamed out loud. "AHK! SOMEONE'S TALKING INSIDE MY HEAD!"

Sarutobi would have been startled as well but it quickly dawned onto him what the seed must have been. To make sure, he placed his hand on the boy's head and used a jutsu he had help to create by Inoishi's father a long time ago.

Knowing it wasn't the fox demon, he mentally sighed in relief before removing his head. "Naruto, don't panic. I forgot to mention that in order to give this power to you, he had you swallow a seed. That seed while having the power to alter your being slightly also contained an ancient technology forgotten by most."

"The voice inside of your head is known as a TWEE and is an artificial being with super-human intelligence and with the ability to interact with the technology around it. With the limited amount of tech around these days, the latter part isn't too useful but still comes in handy in a pinch. Depending on the age, it might be able to help you with training in your own abilities." Sarutobi finished explaining.

"So I should ask it about my abilities then?" Naruto concluded after carefully listening to the third, a rarity as the boy had a very short attention span.

"Correct. I was designed to help you understand your abilities and teach you how to use them efficiently." The semi robotic tone of the TWEE spoke.

Thinking how cool it was that he could to have someone inside of him to help him with his work in the academy, Naruto was about to speak when the TWEE suddenly responded. "Do not think about using me for a cheat sheet. All I will do is help you with your work, not do it for you."

"AH! HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING?!" Naruto yelled out, catching Sarutobi off guard as he was about to lead Naruto out to get some ramen anyways.

"I'm inside your body and attaching myself to your neural network. I am effectively a part of you now and can hear every single thought with you as long if one of us doesn't cut our communication link." The TWEE stated, sounding a little more human then before, as if his voice was adjusting to make it seem more natural.

As Naruto was attempting to fully comprehend what the TWEE had told him, Sarutobi sighed and shook his head as he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder once more. "You know you don't have to talk out loud to it. It will make you look... well crazy."

Naruto twitched at this before he gave it a try and thought to the TWEE. 'Why didn't you tell me that I could talk to you inside my head?!'

"It made no difference as I could hear you either way. However, I thought it would be humorous for you to talk out loud to me and gage people's reactions." It responded with what sounded like an amused voice and far more like a human male then before as it completed it human voice adapter.

Seeing Naruto twitch, Sarutobi chuckled as he walked out with Naruto following him. "So does it have a name? I heard from my teachers that they supposedly had names."

'Hey! Do you have a name? It would be inconvenient to call you TWEE all the time.' Naruto thought to it instantly, curious to its name.

The TWEE didn't answer immediately as if it was thinking before it gave an answer. "The full name I was given when created was Zohar Analytical and Galvanization Gadget and Enhanced Retainer."

"I was one of the first created and was a complete accident, so they didn't know what to call me at the time. In fact, they had no clue what I did until they started creating others. But if I was to have a name, it would Zagger to shorten it." It stated as it realized Naruto couldn't comprehend, or even remember, the name it gave him.

'Zagger... Hm, sounds cool.' Naruto commented; kind of liking the ring to it and was seriously glad he didn't have to call him Zohar Anay... Whatever it was.

* * *

"Ah, I'm full!" Naruto burped out as he rubbed his abnormally large stomach after eating his ramen.

"Cannot compute... The input of food was far too great... How has the stomach not burst?" Zagger sounding very robotic, not sure how Naruto was able to eat his own body weight in noodles and still be alive. So far all of his scans came back very little information, leaving the TWEE ready to malfunction.

Sarutobi was in the same predicament and groaning that he had to pay for the build. He swore that the boy was an Akimichi just from how he ate even if he knew who the boy's parents were. The boy had a stomach like no other and inhaled the ramen so quickly Teuchi could hardily keep up.

Sighing as he pulled out his wallet, he easily paid for the meal, as he was Hokage and the village was well off meaning he was as well. "Well Naruto, I have to get..."

He noticed Naruto wasn't paying attention to him at all and instead looking out of the ramen stand and looking over to a group of kids, seemingly playing ninja.

"No, I don't want him on my team! He's too slow and can't even hide!" One of the boys said, obviously the leader of his team.

"Well I don't want the fatso on mine either! Every time we play, the team he's on loses!" The other team leader said, pointing to a large kid with swirls on his cheeks and reddish-brown hair.

The said boy's face fell at being called fat once more and was ready just to walk away when one of the girls spoke. "Yeah, let's just play with what we got. It would be more fun that way."

Seeing the look on the boy become further depressed, Naruto decided to act right then and there not being able to handle seeing another being picked on. "HEY! Just who do you think you are not letting him play?!"

Standing besides the large boy, Naruto's Rinnegan shone brightly as small pebbles began to rise in the area.

Zagger instantly was doing scans through Naruto's body to discover the sudden rise in his chakra and power levels as they were off the chart, or at least the chart he currently had, for someone his age. It quickly found the source and decided to scan it, learning instantly what it was.

Wanting to know more, it dived in, leaving Naruto to the current situation outside.

As it did so, another boy walked up with his hair tied in a pineapple pony tail and his hands in his pockets. "And do you guys even know what being a ninja is? It isn't all about how well you can hide and being able to move quickly?"

"It's all about the heart of the ninja! As long as a ninja believes in himself, nothing is impossible! Why you could be talking to the three greatest ninja this village has ever seen right at this very moment!" Picked up where the black haired boy started, Naruto finished his statement as the wooden kunai in the boy's hand suddenly flew out of his and into Naruto's.

From this act alone, all the children were suddenly frightened, not sure how Naruto had did that. They didn't stick around to find out as they ran off, leaving Naruto alone with the large boy and the pineapple.

As they rushed off, the large boy sadly smiled at both of them. "Thank you two... No one has ever stood up for me."

"Don't mention it. I can't stand to see someone be made fun of just because they think something wrong with them." Naruto answered, speaking on his own behalf and about the way he was always treated or ignored by almost everyone he ran into.

The pineapple head nodded his head in agreement. "It isn't right to judge people on their first glance and I know you far better then they do, Chouji. I know you'll make a fine ninja one day."

Chouji suddenly smiled brightly at the black haired kid. "Thanks Shikamaru. I really needed that. And thank you..."

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto is the name, the future Hokage!" Naruto answered immediately and with as much enthusiasm he could muster, which was quite a lot.

While Shikamaru gave him a flat stare, Chouji only smiled even more, if that was even possible. "So that's why you said what you did in the end."

"Of course!" Naruto passionately responded, pumping his fist into the air before realizing that the third wasn't around. "Wait, where is the old man?"

"The Hokage went back to his office, Naruto! He told me to tell you he'll see you tomorrow morning!" Teuchi yelled at to him from his stand, smiling as he had watched the entire scene and was quite impressed with the two boys stepping up for the other.

This caught both off guard for a moment as they looked at him, Chouji being the one to speak first. "You know the Hokage?!"

Naruto simply nodded, not seeing what the big deal was. "Yeah, the old man treats me like I'm his grandson or something. I swear he watches over me like a hawk at times and he's there if anything bad happens really quick."

It took the two boys a while to calm down, but once they did, Shikamaru shrugged as the Hokage was a nice man from the few times he met him. "Well, anyways. I was going this direction to look at the clouds, do either of you want to join me?"

"Sure!" Naruto gladly accepted the offer as he rarely was offered to spend time with other kids around his age and both were really nice.

Chouji simply nodded as both he and Naruto followed Shikamaru as he headed for his favorite spot.

As they were walking, Zagger quickly communicated to Naruto as his findings alarmed him. "Naruto, we have something to talk about. Not now, obviously, but in the future we need to explain a few things I've just discovered."

Startled by this sudden outburst, it took a few seconds for Naruto to recover before he gave a mental response, almost saying it out loud. 'Okay, but can you give me a little what it is about?'

"No... This is something startling and I'm not sure how to explain this to you just yet. I'm afraid you might not handle it well." Zagger responded, his voice periodically switching from robotic to human-like, suggesting the TWEE was in a state of distress.

Not sure how to take this, Naruto simply put it in the back of his mind and followed Shikamaru up the stairs of the building.

* * *

"Naruto... He's a child of destiny now?" A large man a lot like Chouji responded to the third, who was standing besides him and having told him the whole story as they watched Chouji and Naruto follow Shikamaru.

"Correct, Chouza. What more is that he was also given an ancient technology known as a TWEE. I'm not sure how to take this as it happened so suddenly. ...I would like your help and the help of Inoishi and Shikato in watching Naruto, especially after seeing how your boy and Shikato's hit it off so well with him."

Nodding in understanding, Chouza watched them for a moment longer before turning to Sarutobi. "I'm not one to turn down a request of yours Lord Hokage and I would rather deny my own wife then deny that of one of my best friend's son. And after seeing how he defended my boy, I'm even surer he'll succeed in his goal."

Sarutobi only chucked at Chouza's response before the large man walked towards the stairs, giving him a simple wave. "And I'll talk to Inoishi and Shikato and I'm sure they'll agree to help. Maybe Inoishi can get Ino to talk to him... Lord knows the boy needs to know how to behave around the girls."

Once again, the third could only chuckle at Chouza's response as he walked off. "Too true... Damn. Now I have to go back to work."

Frowning, thinking about just following Naruto for the rest of the day, he sighed before turning to his office and heading in that direction.

How he hated paper work in its entirety.

* * *

**Jutsu Translation**

Shinra Tensei - Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God

**A/N**: Yes, a new story, even though it isn't too new for me. This was a mix and rework of my first version of Naruto's True Power and Pain before it became the dark story that it is, which will be making it's redebut on my Yahoo! Group soon. It also has some story structure from A Helping Hand and Evangelion Naruto, so some of this might seem a little familiar.

Also, I perfer using Shikato over Shikaku as I always confuse it with Shukaku and have a tendency to change it the latter. With Shikato, that doesn't happen and mostly everyone has a picture of who I'm talking about.

Zagger is not a self insertion, either. He was a character I created a long time ago for my horribly drawn stories years before I came a writer and I chose the name as his stories were the first I ever created and helped me become a writer.


	2. Chapter 1

A few years had passed by and now Naruto was twelve, going on thirteen. He had grown over the years, standing an inch over five feet and wearing clothing that was pure white that strangely enough didn't have a single scuff or dirt clod on it.

Currently, he was sitting in the academy for the final day so he could become a gennin.

'Why the hell do I have to sit through all this crap again?' Naruto thought to himself as he waited for Iruka to call his name for the test.

"Because last year you thought it was so important to train that you forgot that you could have graduated." Zagger commented, figuring he throw it into Naruto's face as an 'I told you so'.

Naruto twitched at his twee and wanted to throttle it, but it was hard to do that to something that lived within your very essence. 'Hey, I remember you saying that training was important.'

"I won't say otherwise, but I did tell you not to skip class. Then we could have graduated and been doing some serious training."

'OUR TRAINING HASN'T BEEN SERIOUS! NO FUCKING WAY! YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!' Naruto mentally screamed as all the images of the training, sometimes more like torturing and tormenting sessions, popped into his head.

"**WHAT THE HELL?! SHUT THE FUCK UP NINGEN! I WAS TRYING TO SLEEP!**" Kyuubi yelled out as the sudden scream had woken her up in a very unpleasant fashion.

"I just told him I haven't been training him to the full potential of his abilities." Zagger commented humorously.

Kyuubi only snickered. "**Oh! I've been wondering when you were going to let the damnable human know about that.**"

'WHAT THE HELL?! WHY ARE YOU TWO TALKING TO EACH OTHER LIKE YOU KNOW EACH OTHER?!' Naruto yelled at both Kyuubi and his twee, already haven been told about Kyuubi by his twee two years back, Zagger realizing that Naruto needed to be somewhat mature to tell him, and ended up confronting the fox days afterwards.

They weren't exactly on the best terms, but Kyuubi had come to accept that if Naruto died, she would die too. So she tolerated Naruto and helped give him a push in the right direction despite wanting him to use her power more then his own.

"**Don't think he's limited to only talking to you as I'm apart of you to. And he is the only other intelligent being in this body and I need company.**" The fox demon spoke in a rather annoyed tone, wanting to go back to sleep.

"She is very intelligent and most of my best ideas have come from her, mainly Shinra Tensei as we still wouldn't have figured it out without her. And after a while with only talking to you, I need someone else to talk to! I was going insane for a while." Zagger added on, emphasizing his last two sentences.

"Okay... My twee and the fox are apparently going out and my training hasn't have been as tough as it can be. Perfect." Naruto whispered to himself as soon as he shut off his mental link with the two, getting way too confused.

"Naruto stop talking to yourself and get down here! I've already had to let Ino go in front of you as you were in another dimension!" Iruka yelled at Naruto, getting annoyed that the blonde had ignored him calling upon him, once more.

He understood there was something about the blonde and the fact that he shouldn't still be an academy student, but he was still in his class and he wasn't going to treat him any differently then the other students. Mizuki on the other hand...

"Hai, hai. Keep your pants on Iruka-sensei. Wouldn't want to let anyone know you're going commando again." Naruto commented loudly as he walked down to the front while Kiba turned pale as a ghost.

Iruka did as well; however, he turned blood red a second later. "DAMMIT NARUTO! THAT WAS YOU THIS MORNING!"

"Believe what you want." Naruto stated as he went through a few hand seals. "It is Clone, right?"

The room was suddenly filled with mirror images of Naruto in a line, wall to wall. Iruka's mouth closed as he was about to confirm it was while Mizuki's dropped as he had a hard time creating that many in one go.

Quickly regaining his wits, Iruka nodded as he marked down on his clipboard. "Yes and that was far more then necessary. Now if you can show me a Replacement, a Transformation or a jutsu that is at least D-rank or above, E-rank if cleverly applied."

With the same hand seal, Naruto used a simple transformation and turned into a nude young woman with red hair and a large set of breasts.

Needless to say, both Iruka and Mizuki were knocked back and out of their chairs by nose bleeds as were some of the more perverted male students, some female students as well.

However, Naruto was forced to quickly transform back as both Kyuubi and Zagger began to tirade in his head.

"**HOW DARE YOU USE MY BODY FOR YOUR OWN AMUSEMENT?! I WILL TEAR YOU APART IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!**"

"Don't ever use that again without it being absolutely necessary and we'll tell you when that time has come!"

After they were finished, this left Naruto confused. 'Wait, how the hell do I know what she looks like naked? I thought she was just a giant fox.'

The links were suddenly cut as both realized how he knew what she looked like, leaving Naruto out to dry as Iruka jumped up. "NARUTO THIS ISN'T A JOKE SO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! I SHOULD JUST THROW YOU OUT NOW AS THAT WAS A CHEEP AND DIRTY TRICK!"

Thinking on his feet, Naruto quickly came up with a logical answer. "Well, that it may be sensei, but it works and you two could have very well have been killed by the next move as your defenses were completely dropped."

As Iruka tried to find a comeback, Mizuki stood up and shook his head. "He has a point there. He could have simply stuck kunai into us while we were down and we would be dead. It is an effective distraction even if it is a little improper."

Being unable to deny either of their statements, Iruka grumbled before picking up a headband and throwing it Naruto. "You pass, but don't use that any where near some of the jounin kunoichi. They would castrate you during a burning crucifixion for that."

"**I think I might like these women. They know how to torture people.**" Kyuubi commented, linking back up with Naruto's conscious mind with his twee.

"Stay away from them at all cost. The likeliness of death is 99.974242324..."

Naruto cut the link between the two of them, still wondering how he knew what Kyuubi looked like naked. The fact that Kyuubi was a chick wasn't lost on him, but he was taking on one problem at a time.

Tying the headband to his forehead, he took his seat before Iruka sighed as he looked over the class. He liked this class for the most part and was probably going to be one of the most successful and his personal favorite unless a better came along, which he doubted would be for a long time.

"As of today, all of you have graduated, so congrats are in order. However, you will still have to come here one last time tomorrow to be put on your gennin squads, which I will go over tonight. And before all you leave, I will name the number one of both shinobi and kunoichi before announcing the Rookie of the Year."

Seeing the close get quiet, except for Naruto who was off in his own little world at the moment, Iruka shook his head. "The top kunoichi is Haruno Sakura and the top shinobi is Uzumaki Naruto, who will be this year's Rookie of the Year."

The sudden silence turned into a unanimous chorus of "WHAT?!" by Sasuke, Kiba, a few other passing gennin of no significance and Sasuke's fan girls. Even Naruto was mildly surprised as he really didn't try in the class, having taken it last year.

Sighing as he rubbed his forehead and ignoring the look of shock on Mizuki's face, knowing the chunin to have a grudge against the fox demon, therefore most likely Naruto, he responded as if it was rehearsed. "It really wasn't a contest. Naruto was just that much better then everyone in all practical and was even with Sakura and Shikamaru, when he tried, in academics."

As Shikamaru muttered troublesome under his breath, Iruka rolled his eyes before continuing as he gathered his clipboard and papers. "Not to mention that he would have been last year's Rookie of the Year if he hadn't skipped out the final semester of class and did his own training, so don't be so shocked that he won. Now be back here tomorrow at twelve for team placement. Bye."

With that, the dolphin flickered away in a swirl of leaves. The next to follow was Naruto, flickering away in a similar fashion except it was leaf-less.

Appearing in his favorite place, Naruto grinned as he stretched out his arms seeing his favorite person. "Ayame, I'm home!"

Ayame only huffed at him as she stood behind the counter while Teuchi only smiled seeing his favorite customer. "Might as well be your home. I've never seen you go home before."

"Semantics. Now three bowls before I have to run from the mob of Sasuke fan girls that will want to lynch me." Naruto ordered as he sat on a stool, next to a large man that looked eerily similar to Chouji. "Chouza, my man!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll spot you this time." Chouza stated with a smile on his face, knowing what the blonde was already going to ask. He was so predictable when he was here and the boy was like a second son and one of Chouji's best friends.

Speaking of Chouji, the boy was rolling towards them panting while Shikamaru was an entire block behind them. In an instant, the boy was on the stool next to Naruto. "Ayame, twelve bowls please!"

Chouza was chuckling once more, but he waited for Shikamaru to arrive before he spoke. "So seeing that all three of you are here, how'd you do?"

"Fine, dad. We all passed and Naruto was named Rookie of the Year... Oh man! I think I was followed here by some of Sasuke's mob!" Chouji was excited at the beginning before he was suddenly dreading the eventual-ness of being chased by the mob.

"Nah. I would be more worried about Sasuke himself." Shikato spoke as he walked in with Inoichi besides him. "Hm... Where's Ino?"

"Probably with the said mob." Inoichi chuckled to himself as he took a seat besides Chouza as Shikato sat besides him, who was nodding.

Naruto nodded in agreement as his three bowls of ramen arrived and scarfed them down quickly. "Yeah, Sasuke is probably going to challenge me when he realizes that I was the best... Not that it was a challenge with my twee and all."

"Naruto, don't talk about that out loud. If others learned about it, they would be demanding you for one." Shikamaru commented as he reached over Chouji and slapped him in the back of the head.

The slap barely fazed the blonde as he was already finished with his bowls. "Bah! They would learn how _forceful _I could be if they did."

The three adults nodded as Naruto was telling the truth there, especially with his emphasis on forceful knowing it meant his two most powerful techniques.

Over the last few years, the boys had become good friends as Naruto fit right into their system. He kept up with Chouji's appetite and he was just as lazy as Shikamaru when he didn't feel like doing anything. He did butt heads with Ino, but so did Chouji and Shikamaru when it came down to it.

But it was his arrival into the group that made him nearly as beloved in Ino's eyes, possibly equal if not greater if they didn't butt heads so often. He had gotten both Chouji and Shikamaru to train more seriously, herself included. As a result, Shikamaru wasn't as lazy and attempted to work every now and then while Chouji was still the largest kid in their class, but not by much.

"NARUTO!" Ino's voice came from behind.

The said blonde turned around before catching a CD thrown at him as Ino sat down next to Shikamaru. Naruto blinked for a moment as it was the CD he asked her for, but didn't think she would have given it to him after the results. "Um, aren't you mad at me? And where is Sakura?"

"Of course I mad, idiot! You should have graduated last year! ...But, I kind of figured you would be the Rookie of the Year. I mean, I've never seen someone with your power before." Ino yelled somewhat angrily before ending in an exasperated sigh as she had grudging respect for the blonde's skill and abilities.

"And Sakura is currently trying to lead the mob to another one of your hotspots as she knows we're here. So thank her the next time you get a chance." Ino answered his other question as the pink haired kunoichi was added to their group after she helped Chouji when other students were trying to pick on him once more.

The pink haired Sakura was probably the oddest of the group mainly because it seemed she didn't click all that well with anyone but Ino. However, after some work and some time, she adjusted and gotten use to Shikamaru and Chouji and had hit it off with Naruto.

Simply shrugging his shoulder, Naruto knew better then to say anything as that was as good of a compliment as he was going to get from Ino since she became one of Sasuke's fan girls. Pulling out a portable CD player, he decided to give her an answer anyways. "I know, but I didn't believe I was ready to graduate, despite Zagger saying otherwise."

This only made Ino twitch before sighing once more. "I don't see how. You've held your own with..."

"Ino, don't talk about it in public. You don't know who might be listening in." Inoishi stopped his daughter from continuing, sensing that someone was listening on their conversation and was decently skilled, for a gennin.

Naruto also caught this before sighing as he knew the Uchiha had been following him recently, trying to figure out why the blonde was more successful then he was.

Standing up and stretching his limbs out, Naruto yawned before placing the ear buds into his ears. "Well I'll be seeing you tomorrow I guess. I still have to improve what I have so far. My pull is outstanding but my push is giving me trouble still."

Understanding what he said, both the elder and younger Ino-Shika-Chou knew what he was talking about and gestured him a goodbye in different fashions.

But as he left, he turned on the walkman and purposely stood besides Ino, starting to shake his hips. "I'm on fire and now I think I'm ready..."

"NARUTO!" Ino yelled out and nearly punched Naruto in the face as a fierce blush blemished her face.

It, however, simply slowed down before Naruto moved his head out of the way. As he smirked at the blush at Ino's face, he could see the widening of all three of the parents' eyes seeing what happened.

Before he could press play on his walk off as the adults went into shock, Ino stopped him by grabbing his arm and pulling an ear bud out of his ear, her blush now even darker, whether it from his song or by what she was about to say. "By the way, Sakura wants a date for saving you from dealing with the lynch mob."

"Hai, hai. Tell her I'll pick her at eight." Naruto commented before putting his headphones back in. Then he simply turned around and shook his waist while singing the words of the song, leaving all of them to sweat drop as he left.

* * *

"Tell me that you're alright... Everything is alright." Naruto sang to himself, dancing as he walked to the academy, ignoring everyone looking at him as if he was insane.

He could only smirk as at least they were paying attention to him now. While it wasn't positive attention, it wasn't negative either except for the 'What in the world?' looks they were giving him.

"**I will never understand you humans. If this is what you call music, bah!"** Kyuubi complained, not liking the song at all and despite her protests, he continued listening to it anyways.

Naruto simply played the music louder, to annoy the said fox, before the academy was well in view. Seeing a familiar face glaring and seemingly waiting for him, the blonde sighed before pulling out his ear buds and putting away his walkman. "What do you want Sasuke? Team placements are in ten minutes."

"Fight me, Uzumaki." Sasuke stated; his hands clenched tightly as his onyx eyes gazed into Naruto's Rinnegan.

Sighing again, Naruto gave Sasuke a pitying look as other graduate heard this and slowly began to slink their way towards them. "Sasuke, your arrogance is asinine. You know..."

"I don't care. I know you are strong and well deserving of the title as it means nothing to me. But I've seen nothing to warrant you to be so much superior then everyone, myself included. I want to prove at least that much, even if I can't beat you." Sasuke stated; his eyes burning brightly as he was determined to fight Naruto.

At first, Naruto didn't seem too moved by Sasuke's words but after a moment, he sighed as he knew this would happen sooner or later. Just as he was about to respond, a girl that was in Sasuke's fan club chimed in. "Of course you can win Sasuke! He just won by default!"

As Sasuke gave her a cold glare, Naruto took a few steps back and widened his stance. "Then let's hurry this up. I don't want to be late of team assignment."

"Don't use Shinra Tensei..." Zagger tried to state before Naruto quickly interrupted him.

'I know. It is too dangerous to use it offensively against friendly competition, even if I could use it without it backfiring. I'll stick with using it as a defense.'

Not hearing anything else from Zagger or Kyuubi, Naruto simply waited for Sasuke to make the first move as the raven slid into his stance.

As the two stood waiting for the other to make a move, the same girl that spoke before did so again, this time standing with most of the fan club, boosting about how Sasuke was going to win to the rest. "Watch, Sasuke is going to win so quick. I wouldn't be surprised if he won in the first move."

"I doubt that." Sakura's voice chimed in as she walked up with Ino, shaking her head having a good idea of the outcome already. She had warned Naruto this would happened the day before as she had spied on Sasuke, for personal reasons of course.

Another of the girls from the fan club spoke, criticizing Sakura's sudden change of heart. "Oh come on Sakura! You're one of the Sasuke's biggest followers!"

Not denying it, Sakura simply shrugged her shoulders. "I might be, but you forgot that I'm also part of Naruto's fan club too and happen to know him way better then I know Sasuke."

Ino nodded, being in the said club as well, before sighing. "This won't be a contest. I've trained with Naruto before with Chouji and Shikamaru... If this fight is decided in one move, it will be Naruto who wins in one."

As some of Sasuke's fan club couldn't believe what they heard from two of the biggest members in it, Sasuke was the first to get impatient and attack, using kunai to try and lure Naruto into counter attacking.

However, to the amaze of everyone there, they simply bounced away from him as if they were repelled by something. Not sure how to respond to this, Sasuke quickly followed with a flurry of quick seals and breathed a heavy stream of flames towards Naruto.

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

As the flames rushed around Naruto, everyone was simply amazed once more as Naruto simply stood in the middle unflinching and seemingly unharmed from the blaze that was consuming him.

Watching in utter shock, Sasuke wasn't sure what to do next as he had never seen what Naruto had done before as the dust cleared. The blonde still hadn't moved and he hadn't even left so much as a burn on him.

Knowing that he had to make a move if he wanted to stand a chance, he was going to go with hand-to-hand seeing that his long range arsenal wasn't going for him.

As he neared Naruto, he suddenly felt his own momentum was increasing as if something was pulling on him. Not sure what this was, he was about to alter his attack when his feet left the ground and continued heading towards the blonde against his own will, not noticing that Naruto's hand was extended towards him.

Before he could even react, a kunai appeared in Naruto's other hand and just before Sasuke was on him. He kneed the Uchiha in the stomach before placing the bladed end of the ninja knife against Sasuke's shoulder just as the boy fell to his knees, the wind knocked out of him.

Seeing the raven trying to stand, Naruto put some pressure on the kunai, cutting into the cloth and placing the blade tightly against his flesh. "Sasuke, this fight is over. I could have just as easily stabbed this into your heart instead of kneeing you."

Removing the kunai from Sasuke's shoulders, Naruto looked up and noticed a few jounin standing on top of the academy. Knowing that they were going to be the jounin instructors, Naruto simply shook his head and sighed before walking in, leaving almost everyone stunned at what happened.

"Oh my god, oh my god! Naruto won in one move like Ino said!" The first fan club girl stated in an overwhelmed tone, not sure how Sasuke was beaten so handily and was feeling giddy and oddly excited by what she had just seen.

Ino wanted to tell them that Naruto had actually used three but decided not to as there was no real reason to give that information away. Besides, it looked better for him if she didn't say anything, knowing a few of the girls would be switching fan clubs real quick.

* * *

As everyone piled into the class room, Sasuke being the last as he was still in disbelief on how quickly he was beaten, Iruka smiled as he pulled out his clipboard. "Good afternoon class. This will be the last day you see me... Well at least as a teacher. We might end up having missions together later on."

"Anyways, let's get to the team assignments. Team one..."

"That wasn't half bad use of your abilities. I think you could have used the reflection to end the fight and not have had to absorb his fire jutsu." Zagger commented after he had gone over all the fine details of the battle and had analyzed them.

"Still, we need to practice more on Shinra Tensei before continuing work on the other. It has, by far, the most offensive potential and your offense is lacking despite having a near perfect defense."

'Yeah, yeah. We'll get work on that after learning who my team and sensei is and whatever else is after.' Naruto responded while trying to listen to the teams called as he was waiting for his name.

"Team seven, Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura." Iruka stated before a loud "YES!" came from Sakura's direction as she jumped up with her fist pumped into the air, eerily similar to Naruto's fist pump.

Iruka just rolled his eyes before naming the next team. "Team eight, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata and Akimichi Chouji."

Quite pleased with his team and thinking of how it could work, Naruto missed Iruka's next team he called before catching the final team. "And team ten will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Inuzuka Kiba."

"Now that all of you know your teams, your jounin instructors will drop by to pick you up soon, unless your instructor happens to be Hatake Kakashi. Then you will be waiting her for the next two to three hours." Iruka state being dead serious making every single gennin dread, hoping he wasn't there instructor.

However, the first batch came quickly, a woman with dark brown hair, almost black, being at the front. "Team eight, come with me please."

Sighing in relief he wouldn't have to deal with the one eye cyclops as a sensei, Naruto quickly followed after the brown haired kunoichi along with Chouji and Hinata.

Once they were outside the academy, the kunoichi led them towards the academy training ground and had them sit at a picnic table. As they sat, she gazed over her three students, studying their postures to learn more about them.

After a moment of silence, she suddenly smiled before speaking in a melodious voice. "Alright you three, I am your jounin instructor as you know. Before we even start getting to training and missions, we must first get to know one another and the first step on that way is to introduce ourselves. Seeing as I'm the senior here, I'll start first."

"I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, also known as the genjutsu mistress of Konoha."

"And the Ice Queen of Konoha... Sorry, that just came out." Naruto commented before apologizing, knowing what the woman could do him with her illusions alone and didn't want to be at the wrong end of one.

Kurenai twitched at Naruto's response before sighing understanding how the blonde heard the name. "Yes, I am known by that name as well through the men in Konoha. Just please don't call me that again, I don't like the name."

"Hai." All three stated as they understood her reasoning.

"Anyways, as my nickname suggest, I excel in genjutsu with almost no one within the village rivaling my abilities. I'll admit I still need to work on my ninjutsu and hand-to-hand, but I'm still proficient enough to defeat those who could negate my illusions. I happen to like working on bettering myself as a ninja and hanging out with my friends, particularly Anko and Yugao."

Seeing how Naruto paled at Anko's name, Kurenai reminded herself to ask why later. "I dislike all the guys that call me the Ice Queen just because I wouldn't go out with them. I also hate open perverts and go out of my way to punish them. I don't mind guys being perverted as it is natural for everyone to be so, but the least they can do is hide it."

"Finally, I have a few dreams, one being known throughout the world for my skills, not just my illusions. After that happens, I wouldn't mind settling down with the man I love and having a few kids." Kurenai finished with a smile on her face.

"Now you don't have to do it like how I did, but just give enough so we can get to know you a little better. Hinata, seeing as I know you, why don't you go first." Kurenai spoke once more, choosing the Hyuuga heiress first due to the training she gave the young girl outside of the academy.

Nodding timidly, Hinata took a deep breath before starting in a soft voice as she fiddled with her fingers. "Hi, my name is Hyuuga Hinata, heiress to the Hyuuga clan. I only know my family's taijutsu outside of the jutsu taught in the academy s-so I'm not really sure what I'm good in."

Gaining some confidence after hardily stumbling over her words, Hinata continued with her voice being a little louder and stopped fiddling with her fingers. "I like taking care of p-people and making them feel better. I really don't have anything I dislike other then people who belittle others for no r-reason."

"And I really don't have a dream yet. I just really want to make my family happy and get a certain someone to notice me..." At the end, Hinata trailed off with a deep blush scorning her face as her seemingly pupil-less eyes gazed towards Naruto for a brief second before turning away.

Kurenai, however, caught this quick glance and had to smile, thanking Iruka for putting the boy on the same team with her. It would do wonders for the girl's confidence and even if they didn't become anything more then friends, they would still have a close connection as teammates you were given as a gennin were, more times then not, like family.

Turning to Chouji, she motioned for him to go next before frowning as she noticed he was eating a bag of potato chips. "Can you stop eating those for a moment? After the meeting is done, you can eat again, okay?"

Seeing he was up, the large boy sighed as he put his chips away before nodding. "Alright, I'm Akimichi Chouji. I'm only really good in hand-to-hand combat with my strength and my family's jutsu and I would like to have a few jutsu that could help me if I happen to get stuck in a long range fight."

"I really like my friends, Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru and Ino as they are the ones to ever stand up for me. I also love going out to eat at an all you can eat buffet as the food is good, but the quantity is absolutely divine!" Seeing the look on Chouji's face and the small amount of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth, the both females had sweat drops falling from their heads while Naruto only nodded in agreement.

Returning to reality, Chouji finished his introduction off with a smile. "And for dreams, I want to help my friends achieve their life long goals and start an all you can eat restaurant of my own that serves any and everything so anyone could come in and eat."

Smiling at Chouji, Kurenai was so far very pleased with her team and now it was for the final member to introduce himself. Turning to Naruto, she motioned for him to go. "You're up Naruto."

"Alright!" Naruto stated loudly and proudly as he gave a very wide grin. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage! My abilities are wide spread but I really excel in my defensive abilities and still working on improving my offensive ones. I cherish those who are my friends and would die to protect them. I absolutely love Teuchi and Ayame as they make the best ramen in the world!"

After such a startling beginning, Kurenai had a large sweat drop on the back of her head just about his announcement of loving ramen. "I also respect those that can be open about their perversion as they don't try to hide who they really are. I know people hate them for it, but they are the ones getting the last laugh as they don't compromise and try to be someone different, so in the end they are the real winners."

Kurenai wanted to say something but she just couldn't. Despite her hatred for open perverts, Naruto had a really good and valid point. She had to settle for a small snort and allowed him to continue. "The only thing that I really hate is those that harm people for their own amusement or those who hate others for no legitimate reason."

"And as for a dream, I don't have one. I am going to become Hokage and show everyone that I'm the best and lead this village, hell, the world to prosperity that has long eluded the human race." Naruto finished with confidence brimming in his voice while his Rinnegan burned brightly.

The passion in the blonde's voice really caught Kurenai off guard. While she knew who he was and had heard stories about him, she hadn't believe him to be this fiery just for introductions. If he was like this for a simple thing like this, what was he like during more vigorous activities?

Quickly catching her mind as it started to wonder to places were it shouldn't go, especially since she was sixteen years older then the boy, Kurenai shook her head before she crossed her arms over her chest. "Very good. I think this team will do wonderfully... But there is a catch. You three really aren't gennin yet."

As both Chouji and Hinata looked shocked Naruto merely banged his head against the table. "Not another freaking test! I hate tests! Can I just blow it up?!"

"**Yes, yes you can. Cause massive destruction and allow me to hear the shrieks of terror from the ignorant people!**" Kyuubi cried out to Naruto, hoping he would do something that would mildly entertain her and possibly excite her.

"Naruto, if you listen to her I will shut off your nervous system, effectively paralyzing you. Kyuubi, stop or our dinner tonight is off." Zagger quickly spoke out, sounding somewhat robotic as he did from time to time.

'Wait, you two are having dinner? How the hell is that possible?!' Naruto mentally screamed at the two, which just resulted in both cutting off their links from the blonde, not wanting to answer his question.

"No Naruto, you can't blow it up." Kurenai told him as she rolled her eyes. "I promise; it won't be that horribly difficult as there is a secret to the test. What it is, I won't tell you as you three have to figure it out on your own."

While Hinata looked thoughtful, Chouji winced while Naruto groaned out loud. "Oh no, not more use of my brain! It hurts so much from the academy already!"

This only made Kurenai laugh for a moment before she calmed herself down. "Trust me; you won't have to deal with mind numbing papers for a while so it isn't all that bad. And you only deal with those when you complete a mission on your own or a mission you were team captain of."

"Anyways, meet me at training ground eight tomorrow at eight. Don't be late." Kurenai chimed, purposely stringing all the eights together and purposely rhyming before she disappeared in a swarm of sakura pedals.

Right after she left, Naruto was the first to stand. "Well, I'm going to get some last second training in for tomorrow just incase she tests our physical abilities."

"Alright Naruto. Don't overdue it and put yourself in the hospital again." Chouji responded, knowing that this latest technique his friend had been working on was giving him great trouble as it seemed to be against his nature to push things away.

As Naruto was about to leave, Hinata spoke up in a rather light tone as she didn't like hearing that Naruto had physically harmed himself training on whatever he was trying to do. "Ano, Naruto, um, maybe we can join you as we are a team?"

Chouji merely shook his head for Naruto as the blonde stopped to think. "No, I think it is best to allow Naruto to practice this alone. He did use it against Sasuke today, but it was only for defense, the one that deflected the kunai."

As Hinata's eyes widened hearing this, Naruto followed Chouji up and explained the rest. "The true purpose of the jutsu is offensive as it has the capacity to level entire forests, possibly even villages if enough chakra is used. I'm just having trouble focusing it on a single point instead of spreading it around me to shield myself."

The look on both Hinata's and Chouji's face was absolutely priceless as their jaws slacked, nearly unhinging from their skulls. Shaking his head, he gave them a simple wave as he turned around before putting in his ear buds before he started singing as he walked off.

"Has he lost his mind; can he see or is he blind?"

* * *

"Where is he? It is almost eight." Kurenai spoke, very miffed that she couldn't start her test early as Hinata was there by seven and Chouji came around seven forty.

She had expected Naruto to be the last, but she hadn't expected him to be cutting it this close. Most gennin wanted to make a good impression on their jounin instructor by showing up early, but apparently Naruto didn't want to give her one. Then again after yesterday, her impression of him couldn't drop too far as she doubted he would be late.

As it hit eight exactly, Naruto suddenly appeared in a leaf-less flicker, his entire body coated in sweat. "Sorry, my alarm went off a little late while I was training."

"Do you ever go home, Naruto? I mean you live right next to Shikamaru after that freak explosion in your old apartments and he says you are never home except around six in the morning and you're leaving then." Chouji asked, curious to know if his friend were his friend slept as he could see there was no given sign of sleep exhaustion at all.

Naruto simply shrugged as he stretched a little, popping his shoulders. "I do, but I only need three hours of sleep from my body to recover from a day's work. And Shikamaru doesn't see me come home as I come home at three in the morning and wake up at six."

While Chouji and Hinata looked at him oddly at the amount of hours he slept, Kurenai understood why he needed so little sleep. She assumed it to be the fox's work and due to the rate it help him recover from the injuries he had over the years, it was quite understandable that he need so little sleep and could train harder and longer.

"Seeing as all of you are here and on time, though Naruto you cut it really close, I guess we'll start. This test is a two-fold test, meaning I'm going to be grading you on two separate areas to see if you are ready to become gennin." Kurenai stated, ready to unveil her test to the three gennin.

Pulling out slips of paper, one with each of their name marked on it, she started to explain her test. "With this training ground, there are three slips of paper with your names on it sealed with a scroll with a simple chakra seal. Find the one with your name and you may have passed. Don't, you fail and are sent back to the academy."

"Oh, be warned that I'm only giving you till noon to find the correct scroll and I will be randomly attacking you and placing traps to test your skills along the way." Kurenai added on, giving them the nicest evil smile any of them had ever seen.

In fact, the only way to get an eviler nice smile was from it to come from Hinata and that just wasn't happening as the girl didn't have a single evil bone in her body...

As she could see all three of their faces fall, well Naruto was more creeped out by her smile, Kurenai added on one last tidbit of information. "And even if you do succeed and find your name, I might not pass you if you don't meet the two requirements I'm looking for in this test."

"And you aren't even going to tell us what they are, are you?" Naruto said with a sarcastic tone to his voice, knowing all too well she didn't.

"Nope!" Kurenai chirped happily as the slips of papers in her hand suddenly disappeared. "Now the test begins, now."

Just like the day before, Kurenai disappeared in a flurry of sakura pedals. Or so she thought as Naruto threw a kunai, cutting her cheek and dispelling the illusion. "Can't fool me a second time."

"...Naruto, I'm the one doing the testing, not you!" Kurenai yelled out at him before disappeared in a swirl of leaves, miffed that he had to show up her favorite genjutsu.

As she flickered away, Hinata spoke quickly despite the softness in her voice. "She's going to go after you first for that, you know."

"Eh, it was still worth it to show her illusions only work once." Naruto responded with a shit eating grin before popping his shoulder. "So what do you two want to do? Try it on your own or work together. I'm fine with it either way."

Thinking for a moment, Hinata spoke with a little timidity in her voice. "I think... we should work as a team. ...I've known Kurenai-sensei for a while and I think that's one of the t-things she's grading us on."

"Chouji?" Naruto turned to the round boy, wanting to know his answer as he was perfectly fine with going along with Hinata and teaming up with them.

"Let's do it. My dad told me in his gennin test that team work was one of the key factors they tested his team on so I'm betting that's what it is here." Chouji stated, agreeing with Hinata entirely as he remembered all of his dad's stories about when he was a gennin.

"Good, now let's go get those scrolls while I keep Kurenai distracted." Naruto stated before he brought his thumb to one of his canines and easily cut through the skin allowing blood to drip.

"Ano... I don't think it is team work if Chouji and I... Are you going to summon?!" Hinata shyly spoke before she nearly yelled, knowing the hand seals he was going through.

"Um, yeah. What does it look like I'm doing? Crocheting?" Naruto questioned her before he finished the last seal and slammed his palm to the ground.

In an instant, before Hinata could even fathom a response, a giant dog that stood twice, almost triple the height of Naruto with Rinnegan eyes stood besides the blonde. "I have a hundred pounds of raw deer steaks, courtesy of Shikato and Yoshino, for you if find the woman in this forest and keep her busy. Do not kill or severely hurt her under any circumstances and you get them, alright?"

The giant dog just barked before rushing off, intent on finding Kurenai and following his master's orders, wanting those steaks. A second later, Kurenai screamed as the dog found her and the sounds of jutsu flying all over the place could be heard for miles.

While the sounds of battle began to echo through the forest, Naruto turned to his two teammates. "So, let's find those scrolls while she's busy. I think we have an hour or two before she manages to dispel it."

Neither could say anything as the dutifully followed Naruto, having once more been surprised by the blonde Rinnegan wielder.

* * *

"Ah, there's the last one and I bet this one is mine." Naruto stated as Hinata pointed it out to him, having seen it first with her Byukugan.

Hinata just sighed as she was doing a lot of the work for finding the scrolls while Naruto summoned the dog to distract Kurenai. She felt sorry for Chouji as he really couldn't do anything other then get the scrolls for them as Naruto had taken all the trouble out of the test.

But just as they were about to get to the scroll, Kurenai appeared in front of them, not looking too much different then she had before other then a thin sheet of sweat covering her entire body. "Naruto... You are an asshole! I said I was suppose to be testing you, not the other way around!"

"I thought it was a good idea at the time and it weakened you to an acceptable level so the three of us could stand a chance in defeating you." Naruto stated as he knew a jounin was far beyond a gennin in level and under almost no circumstance could three gennin defeat one on their own. The fact that he wasn't a normal gennin didn't seem to cross his thought process...

Kurenai simply growled before she noticed that both Hinata and Chouji had their scroll. Seeing as she really didn't want to test them physically now as she was nearly out of chakra thanks to the summoned cerberus dog, which she learned could grow heads back the hard way, she devised one last way to test them.

"Chouji, Hinata. Seeing that you have your scrolls, you two are done with this test. Both of you passed." Kurenai chirped, trying to get it where it would be Naruto alone so she could teach the boy a lesson in pain.

Instead, Chouji stood besides Naruto and shook his head. "No way! The most important rule for a Konoha shinobi is to never leave a comrade behind, regardless if you fail the mission. I won't back down until this test is over for all of us."

Hinata nodded, standing besides Naruto as her Byukugan flared to life once more. "Chouji is right, Kurenai-sensei. Leaving behind a friend just because your job is finished is s-something I, nor any Konoha shinobi can or should do."

Smirking as both stood besides him, Naruto lifted both his hands towards Kurenai and gave her a shit eating grin. "And that goes double for me as a Hokage won't let his friends down under any reason! Now move out of the way, sensei otherwise we're just going to go right through you!"

Twitching for a moment, Kurenai had to state the obvious. "You three know I'm a jounin and am far more skilled then you three, right?"

"And you're chakra is almost depleted, sensei." Hinata stated back to her, seeing her chakra was far lower then she had ever seen it before and knew she was running low.

Catching this, Naruto had to add on. "And with our combined abilities the rest of would be drained and then you would be forced to fight all three of us hand-to-hand and I doubt you want that to happen against us."

"And what abilities could topple me? Despite the state I'm in, I am an elite ninja and use to getting out of situations like these." Kurenai asked, somewhat proud that her team was standing together and acting as one knowing the situation.

"I'm great in physical combat and with my chakra at its peak I can use my jutsu to restrain you." Chouji stated first as he slid into stance, ready to use his family's jutsu.

"My family's special taijutsu is meant to immobilize and drain my opponents leaving them battered and weary." Hinata followed as she slid into a classic Gentle Fist stance.

Naruto stayed silent for a moment, before he finally finished for them. "And I'm the finisher, as each of my abilities is meant to finish my opponents off. And if that's not enough, I can move them to where I want in order to allow others to finish the battle for me."

Taking in the responses, Kurenai closed her eyes before reopening them with a smile as she bent down and picked up the scroll and threw it to Naruto. "From this day forward, I am officially your jounin-instructor and you are my students."

Seeing all three breath sighs of relief, she motioned to the pieces of paper. "And those papers I gave you are elemental cards. I wanted to see what your affinities are so I can come with an effective training regiment for you three outside of your family and/or regular training. So just push a small amount of chakra into them and you'll learn your elemental affinity."

Both Chouji and Hinata quickly did as she said and after watching what the slips of papers did before telling them their elements. "As expected, you have an earth affinity Chouji and you are surprisingly fire, Hinata. Naruto you are... NO WAY!"

Looking at his slip, she noticed that everything that could happen to the small sheet of paper happened. "...You have every single affinity."

"Yeah, I could have told you that. It's a side effect of my doujutsu." Naruto commented, as he crumbled the paper before throwing it away.

Blinking a few times at this, Kurenai sighed and decided that she was going to have a talk with Naruto later so she could sort out a lot of things she was just learning about him that weren't written in his report. Same as Chouji, but so far the large boy hadn't surprised her so much.

"Anyways, from now on I want you to return here every day at ten for either training and/or a mission. I'm also going to schedule days so I can teach you one on one and seeing that there are a lot of question I would like to ask, Naruto our first session will be tomorrow after the team session." Kurenai asserted as she gave him an annoyed glare.

"But for now, you have the rest day off to celebrate you are officially gennin so I'm going to take you three out to eat." Kurenai chirped; smiling as she covered up for her stomach growling as she was really hungry as the fight against the dog summon left her worn out.

"Ichiraku's?" Naruto and Chouji asked, hoping to get some ramen as that was their traditional lunch.

Kurenai just shook her head. "Might as well. I've heard Ayame was making a diet special."

"YATTA!" Both boys yelled out loud before rushing in the said direction of the restaurant leaving both girls to sweat drop at them.

* * *

**Jutsu Translations**

Shinra Tensei - Force Pull

Katon: Gokakyu - Fire Style: Grand Fireball

**A/N**: Not much to say then I believe I fixed some of the mistakes I had in the first chapter in this chapter. If you find any, let me know. And if anything wasn't clear, let me know as well so I can clarify it. And seeing as I forgot to do this last chapter, I Do Not Own Naruto or any of the song lyrics I might have used or will be using.


	3. Chapter 2

"Alpha in position. Target is ten meters to your right Gamma." Naruto spoke over the head set as he could see his target shrouded in the shadows.

"Roger that Alpha, I see him. Beta, come in from behind and capture the target as we get its attention." Chouji responded before sending a message to their other teammate.

"I'm set here with Omega. Ready when you are Alpha and Beta." Hinata confirmed over the radio as she and Kurenai were ready to strike.

Hearing this, Naruto was the first to react as he jumped out of his hiding from behind a tree and pointed both of his hands towards the shadowed target, focusing right below it. "Shinra Tensei!"

The sudden explosion right underneath it forced the target to jump into the air and hiss wildly at Naruto, seeing the fox-like blonde.

Before it could react, Chouji chose that exact time to use his favorite jutsu, Bubun Baika, and expanded is arms in an attempted to grab the target. The said target simply used the extension of his arms to land on them and jump once more.

However, it suddenly found itself in a flowery field with insects galore. It suddenly began pouncing on the said insects before suddenly being picked up by a young girl with short blue hair.

"Mission completed, Kurenai-sensei." Hinata stated as she stroked the cat's back in a loving manner, making Tora purr happily as he curled into her chest.

"Great! Now we can go get another mission!" Kurenai chirped as her team successfully caught the cat for the second time that week.

"Yay..." Naruto commented with less mock thrill then boredom. He much rather be training then doing the mediocre tasks, that they called missions, they were assigned.

Kurenai simply bonked him on the head as she rolled her eyes.

* * *

"Ah, another mission completed for Team Eight. Well, I must say you are well beyond the rest of the teams. They haven't even completed half the amount you four have." Sarutobi stated with a smile as he looked over the team while Iruka filed the papers as he was basically the Hokage's secretary when the academy was out.

"**So boring... Even your training has never left me this miserable.**" Kyuubi commented blandly as she was really, really bored with what Zagger and Naruto called training. Though of lately she did like it as it was mindless destruction as Naruto was attempting to use Shinra Tensei for offense...

Kurenai simply smiled at the Hokage as she beamed proudly at her team as he went through the mission to find another. Seeing this, she spoke up as she noticed he was looking in the D-rank folder. "Lord Hokage if I may, I believe my team is more then ready for a C-rank mission."

"What?" Iruka commented as he looked up from the mission report he had just filed and looked Kurenai in the eyes, knowing the kunoichi quite well as they were both teachers at the academy at one point. "It hasn't even been a month yet, Kurenai. I don't think..."

"Umino, may I remind you of your place?" Kurenai stated in a deadly tone, not liking that Iruka was trying to overrule her command of her newly instated team.

Sarutobi sighed as he was quite use to this as it often happened when a jounin instructor thought their new team was ready while the teacher thought differently. "Kurenai, there is no need to pull rank here as if that is the case, I would win every time. Now you may finish as I know you had a bit more to say about why your team is ready for a C-rank."

While Iruka was a little miffed, he didn't let it show as the Hokage did have supreme power over them and he would be damned to challenge his authority.

Kurenai simply nodded before giving the chunin a long glare telling him there would be more later. "Well, while I admit it hasn't even been a full month, this team is far better then I expected. They show outstanding team work even in the most menial tasks and help each other to complete them faster."

"Also in terms of abilities, I believe my team, not to brag, is the best gennin squad in Konoha. From what I heard from both other senseis, their teams don't click as well as ours not to mention each has grown leaps in bounds since graduation. ...Honestly, I am ready to nominate them for the chunin exam in a few months. I just need to see what they do in real life scenarios." Kurenai finished strongly as she looked over her team as she had seen what each could do.

Nodding as he understood this, Sarutobi caught an extra glance of Kurenai's and saw it was upon Naruto. He had a feeling she wanted to say that if anything bad were to happen, Naruto happened to be a very powerful trump card. Still, he wasn't so sure on Chouji's and Hinata's abilities being quite up to par for the chunin exams.

He also had to put Iruka's fears to ease as he knew the young teacher didn't like any of his students to get hurt and want all of them to be safe. It was even more so for Naruto as he knew that Iruka was very empathic towards him due to their similar upbringings. The only thing the dolphin didn't know was that Naruto's power was far beyond what he thought...

His problem of what to do was instantly solve as the boisterous and flamboyant Gai entered the room in an enthusiastic fashion with his gennin team not to far behind. "Lord Hokage! We are finished with our mission and request another one! The rank doesn't matter, just as long as we are out and showing off our youthfulness!"

As he struck the 'good guy' poise along with a miniature version of him, the other two teams simply sighed. Kurenai and Naruto simply groaned as Hinata and Chouji blinked, not sure what they had just seen or if this guy was real.

The Hokage, however, was glad that Gai had arrived. "Ah, thank you for being so timely Gai. Thanks to your arrival, I believe you just helped me solve the conundrum I'm in."

While mostly everyone looked at Sarutobi as if he was insane, Gai simply beamed at him. "Then I shall do five thousand hand stand jumping jack if I can't help you solve your problem, Lord Hokage!"

"No need for that Gai and you really don't need to do anything so drastic. However, both Iruka and I are not sure if this new team is ready for a C-rank mission while Kurenai believes they are ready and wants to see how they will fair in live action." Sarutobi explained the situation, allowing all in the room to get where he was going at.

Switching to enthusiastic mode to serious mode, Gai thought on it for a moment before nodding. "Well, there is two, no three solutions to your problem. One is that you can send both of our teams on a C-class mission, my team being there for back up while I evaluate there performance."

"The second is to allow a friendly spar between her team and mine to see how well they fair. Finally, you can keep them here for a little while longer so you can personally supervise them to see if they are ready. I would go with either the first or second, maybe even both as you have a lot of work, Lord Hokage." Gai stated, still in a serious but thoughtful tone as he knew the Hokage didn't mind his eccentric nature but now wasn't the time for it.

While Kurenai looked a little shocked that Gai could act seriously and think thoroughly, Sarutobi liked the three options Gai gave him. Not many people knew it, but Gai was quite brilliant and it really showed off through his training as the man was very, very thorough and followed through with his plan. "I believe, in this case, that the first would be the best option, however, I do not have a C-rank mission at the moment."

"I will, however, have one tomorrow. So I want both of you and your teams here at exactly noon. You may have the rest of the day off to get to know one another. Dismissed." Sarutobi stated as he came up with what to do before realizing he had a meeting with his former teammates about some trivial matter that apparently needed his undivided attention. How he hated his job at times.

"Hai, Lord Hokage." Both Gai and Kurenai saluted before Sarutobi flickered out of the room, leaving Iruka alone to man the mission handouts.

Soon as he did, however, Kurenai gave him a frightening glance. "Iruka, I would like to talk to you later about what happened here."

Iruka gulped and shakily nodded his head. He knew whatever was in store for him was not good. He had undermined Kurenai's authority not only right in front of her team, but in front of the Hokage. Oh, how he knew that he was going to be in store for a lashing.

Gai didn't even bother to ask what happened as he knew Iruka had a tendency to be very finicky about letting newly release gennin taking C-rank missions. He could understand his reasoning all to well as gennin had the highest fatality rate of all ninjas, but if a team was ready for a mission was entirely up to the jounin in charge of the squad.

"Well, I believe getting something to eat so our team can introduce themselves to one another is the best, I believe." He stated out loud, far more boisterous then he had been moments before but still in a somewhat serious tone.

"No need." Naruto stated as his Rinnegan gazed into the long haired boy's pale, pupil-less eyes. "Neji and I go way back, isn't that right?"

Neji merely growled at Naruto as he glared right back into Naruto's gaze. He said nothing as he knew whatever he said, the blonde would find a way to throw it back on him and make him look foolish as he did when they were in the academy together.

The bun haired girl merely sighed as she quickly stood in-between the two of them. "Naruto, stop gloating in front of Neji. I know you are going to say he does it to other people, but just drop it. Neji, stop acting so hostile. Like or not, we're going to be together for a little while."

Being the first to back down, Naruto nodded as he turned his gaze to the girl. "Fine. But if he treats my team with any, and I mean any, disrespect expect me to defend them, Tenten."

"Naruto, how do you know them so well?" Kurenai asked in confusion as they were a full year older then he was and it wasn't in his record that he could have graduated early.

It was the miniature Gai, also known as Lee, that stepped out and announced how they knew Naruto with a fervent passion. "Naruto was in our class last year! Our teacher said he would have been the rookie of the year if he hadn't skipped class if he wasn't caught up in his heated and youthful training!"

"In fact, if I remember correctly, you stopped showing up to class after you narrowly defeated Neji after he challenged you to a fight." Tenten added on, trying to solve something that had been puzzling her. "Did something happened that make you unsure of yourself during that fight?"

"As much as I love to answer your questions, I believe the man said we should get something to eat and I'm hungry." Naruto stated as he pointed over to Gai as he didn't want to answer her question just yet, especially as he hadn't even explained that one to his closest friends.

Gai nodded before beaming a smile as everything was settled with very little interference of the jounin. "You are right my young friend! Now away we go!"

Suddenly, Gai, Lee, Chouji and Naruto disappeared into the great yonder leaving the rest behind, all wondering how Chouji and Naruto were keeping up with the pair of green beasts.

* * *

"Okay, this is definitely making me regret coming here." Tenten stated as she watched Lee attempted to keep up with Naruto and Chouji as they went through plate after plate of barbeque.

Asuma, who was seated nearby with Shikamaru, Ino and Kiba, shook his head and laughed. Ino merely sighed before she pulled out two stones from her pouch and hit both of them square in the forehead. "Stop eating so fast you two! We have company!"

"Well, isn't this a surprise? We're all here." Kakashi stated as he walked in with Sasuke, Sakura and Shino directly behind him.

Kurenai simply nodded as she sighed, figuring they would all be here the one time Naruto and Chouji didn't pick Ichiraku's. While she didn't mind being around Asuma, Gai and Kakashi, she just hated that the latter seemed to pick on her and was the original one that started calling her the Ice Queen. "Seems so, Hatake."

"Oh, cold shoulder again, Ice Quee..." Kakashi tried to state before he suddenly found himself in a world of pain as it felt like someone came out of nowhere and kicked him in every man's one true weakness.

As Kakashi bent over in pain, Kurenai handed a few ryo under the table to Naruto before she whispered into his. "Thank you. I feel better already."

"No problem." Naruto softly said as he pocketed the money while everyone that knew of his power simply glared at him, knowing he was at fault for Kakashi's pain.

It seemed that Kakashi knew as well as he stood up before sighing out loud as he sat next to Asuma. "Damn, it is going to be no fun with him around. I can't poke fun at Kurenai anymore without being blind sided by some invisible force."

"Yes, how fun that is." Asuma muttered as he refrained from punching Kakashi in the face for hitting on his fiancé. While only his father knew of their relationship, he still didn't like it when Kakashi and other shinobi tried to hit on her.

Seeing Asuma giving him a cold shoulder too, Kakashi was even surer something was going on between him and Kurenai then before. Now all he needed was proof. Maybe Naruto would have some; the boy did seem to have dirt on everyone he knew.

Shaking his head of that thought, Kakashi yawned out loud before turning to the rest. "Seeing as we are all here, anyone have any stories to tell?"

"You mean like how I burned your regular edition Icha Icha collection after you started that false rumor about Sakura and I going out?" Naruto stated loud enough to make sure everyone heard him.

Everyone snickered at what Naruto stated seeing the shocked look on Kakashi's face while Sakura gave him a very dirty look and was ready to kick him for real. Regaining his honor, or what was left of it, Kakashi sighed. "Dammit Naruto, can you leave those stories out? I don't need anyone knowing about those. I could lose my cred, man!"

"Kakashi, please stop talking like a gangster. Naruto, stop making fun of Kakashi. However, I want to here some of these stories later." Kurenai stated with amusement written in her voice as she liked seeing Kakashi squirm.

Seeing Naruto nod and Kakashi wince, Kurenai smirked. Who knew that Naruto would be such a trump card that she could wield him over Kakashi and make him buckle?

"Gees Naruto, is there any shinobi you don't know is this village?" Kiba asked as he rolled his eyes as he ordered the barbeque plate as he planned on eating a lot to, especially because he wasn't paying.

"Eh, probably, but so far, none that I know." Naruto stated as he started eating at a much slower pace, not wanting Ino to peg him with another stone.

"Hey, that reminds me. How do you know Anko? I remember you squirmed when I mentioned her name in our introduction at the academy and I want to know why?" Kurenai suddenly remembered and was very, very curious to know how he knew Anko. Having ammunition against her best friend really couldn't hurt.

"Ano... That was because of Ino, Sakura and me." Hinata spoke very softly as a very large blush crept on her face until it became entirely red as everyone's attention was on her, except for those who were involved in the said incident.

Blinking a few times, even more curious as to what happened, Kurenai tried to help her female student and figure out what happened. "Go on Hinata. Tell me more..."

"You see, what happened was that Sakura and I were fighting over who liked Naruto more." Ino stated with just as great blush scorning her face as she was forced to tell the story now that Hinata had revealed that they were involved but couldn't as she just didn't want people to know.

Sakura, being the least bashful about the entire event, sighed before she continued on for he two fellow Naruto fan club members. "Well, Hinata heard what we were arguing about and joined in as we had, at the time, recently created his fan club, which as of now is currently the largest fan club in Konoha with Sasuke in a close second and Kakashi-sensei in a distant third."

"Damn, I lost my crown to kids." Kakashi muttered as he order some sake as he felt like getting a little drunk as it seemed everyone was going to be telling stories.

"Hey, at least you didn't lose it to Gai, though I heard he is gaining on you." Naruto interrupted everyone as he heard Kakashi's muttering and couldn't resist poking fun at the Cyclops.

Gai simply gave a shifty eye look before he lightly kicked Naruto under the table, letting him know not to say a word about that. He didn't want his star pupil to know what he did in the red light district at night.

Coughing to gain attention back onto the story, Ino sighed before Hinata suddenly continued for her, still madly blushing. "After that, we k-kind of got into a fight. Since it was raining, not many p-people were out and while we were fighting. As it escalated, I kind of threw Ino... into a mud puddle. The said water splashed and... hit Anko who was w-watching our fight."

"Then I whisked all three of them to the forest of death to deliver swift and just punishment when the damn blonde haired brat suddenly jumped in to defend them." Anko suddenly stated as if she was there, walking into the restaurant before scooting in next to Kurenai, a shit eating grin on her face.

All three of the younger kunoichi paled along with Naruto, who was looking for a way out as he was now sitting right next to the snake mistress and wanted nothing to do with the woman.

Seeing this, Anko merely smirked before stealing Kakashi's bottle with a replacement and downing the entire thing in one gulp. "Anyways to end the story, the brat and I ended up fighting and now that said part of the forest we fought is now a wasteland. Waiter! More sake! And bring me dango until I tell you to stop!"

As everyone sweat dropped at the over simplification of went down in the forest of death, Naruto and the three younger kunoichi breathed a sigh of relief as they didn't have to let it be known what exactly went down in the forest.

But before Naruto could even move from his seat, Anko suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck before laying her head on his while pressing her chest into his face. "Uh-uh. You aren't moving, pillow. You still owe me for removing those poisons from your body."

"If you forgotten, you were the one that injected them into me in the first place! That kind of negates the me owing you part!" Naruto yelled out loud, looking for some help in some form or fashion as he attempted to pull his face out of her bosom.

Luck was shining on him as the man of Anko's fancy walked into the door; one Umino Iruka. The next instant, the said purple haired jounin was at his side, ready to pounce on him like a horny dog. Breathing a sigh of relief, Naruto's head hit the table before him as he felt like passing out. "This is too eventful for my tastes..."

"...I don't want to agree, but I have to. This is just too weird for me." Neji agreed with Naruto despite every bone in his body not wanting to. This was just way too weird for him to be around all of these people. It didn't help that Hinata was here either as he detested the girl for what she was.

Naruto had caught onto Neji's glances at Hinata every now and then, but didn't say a word about it. He knew there was something going on but he would confront the branch house member about that later. He didn't like what he was seeing so far, but the Hyuuga wasn't vocalizing his disrespect so he would let it go for now.

"This is actually kind of funny. This is the most any of us have learned about you, Naruto." Kiba grinned as he took a bite of his food. Even Sasuke looked semi amused at the events unfolding.

Naruto simply twitched at his response and had pointed his hand towards the chop sticks behind Kiba before Kurenai suddenly slapped his outstretched hands. "Don't even think about it!"

Groaning and placing his head back into the table, Naruto was ready for the day to end already as it wasn't going to well. Then it just happened to be worse when Shikamaru walked over and sat beside him. "Naruto, I can't keep covering for you. Both mom and dad know someone is stealing the deer meat they store in the outside freezer. And low and behold, you're one of their top suspects, especially with your cerberus' appetite..."

It was at this, Naruto began to bang his head into the table, constantly, hoping his head would break open so he wouldn't have to deal with this.

"**Oh no, no, no. If you break your head open, I'm not healing you.**" Kyuubi cruelly added on as she did not want to heal Naruto after trying to find an escape from his just deserts. And she just happened to like seeing Naruto squirm.

At this, Zagger decided to come to the rescue, or so it seemed. "Look at it on the bright side; you didn't have to give the details of what happened in the forest. And there are a few stories even more embarrassing then that one that could have been revealed."

This only dropped Naruto's mood further and he was ready to scream and pull out hair. And in his distressed state, Kakashi just couldn't help but adding onto his torment. "So Naruto, how did your latest dates with Ino and Sakura go?"

Naruto's head nearly went through the table as Hinata's, Ino's and Sakura's attention were keenly onto him, making everything so much worse for him.

It was at that moment Naruto went psychotic as he pointed his hand towards Kakashi. "Cyclops, we're going to the hospital. Now."

"Why? I don't see... Oh fuck." Kakashi slowly realized what was going to happen and dashed out of the diner with Naruto hot on his heals.

"SHINRA TENSEI!" Was the last thing any of them heard before a loud bang was heard thorough Konoha.

* * *

"Now what have we've learned, Naruto?" Kurenai stated as she came to pick Naruto up from the hospital as it wasn't quite noon yet and Naruto had just been discharged. Both Chouji and Hinata were waiting with Gai's team in the mission hall for her to get back with Naruto.

"That Kakashi is a bastard and he needs a swift kick in the nuts and someone to burn his entire limited addition collection of Icha Icha." Naruto stated as his button his white cloak on and over his pure white, almost ethereal, wardrobe.

"Exactly." Kurenai responded with a wide smile before patting him on the shoulder. "By the way, I heard Kakashi has to stay here for a few days after the kunai with a flash tag suddenly and magically gave him a Thousand Years of Death. And I hear when he gets out; he'll be walking bo-legged for weeks."

"Hurray." Naruto stated with false enthusiasm as he wanted to do so much more damage to the silver haired jounin. The damn bastard had evaded almost every single attack until that final one that only landed due to Anko's intervention, scaring the crap out of the scarecrow.

Nodding as she led Naruto out of the hospital as it was a flicker free zone, Kurenai had one thought that kept bugging her. "Naruto, what did you mean that Gai was catching up to Kakashi in fan clubs. I know, despite him being a damn open pervert, Kakashi is considered one of the best looking and most interesting guys in Konoha."

Naruto only smirked as he stretched out a little as it felt good that he was one of the few that actually knew of Gai's dirty little secret. "Oh, just trust me on this. Gai is a stud when he wants to be or isn't trying to impress his students. I think he could pick any woman in Konoha up if he wanted to."

Kurenai's jaw dropped for a moment before she raised her eyebrow, not believing that Gai could be called anything but an eccentric freak. "Somehow, I seriously doubt that. I know the man well, Naruto, and I've seen him be nothing but who he is around his students."

"Have you ever seen him after ten at night in the red light district, especially at the Woman's Club?" Naruto stated with a dark grin as he refrained from bursting out laughing seeing the utter shock on Kurenai's face after what he said.

Being disturbed for more then just imaging Gai on a stripper poll, how Naruto knew of that place and why had he ever been there, Kurenai recovered slightly before speaking in an amazed tone. "I'll have to see it to believe it. Now let's go, we'll be late."

Seeing Naruto nod in agreement, Kurenai flickered to the mission hall with Naruto only moments behind her. She noticed that Iruka was giving her a frightened glance, but he had good reason as she chewed him out last night and then handed him over to Anko. Even she shivered at that, not wanting to know what Anko did to the poor dolphin.

Sarutobi seemingly entered the room at the same time, exiting a room that seemed to contain a weird clear orb in the middle, with a slight look of shock on his face. It quickly, however, disappeared as a look of seriousness crossed his face. "I've just received a C-rank mission from our ally, the Hidden Village of Waterfall."

Taking a small puff of his pipe, Sarutobi continued. "They apparently need some help in recovering an important artifact from a thief that slipped in when the majority of the jounin were out of the village. Because of this, Lady Fuu has requested our help as she is having a difficult time defending her village among other things. There is, however, a catch."

"Gai, Kurenai, due to circumstances I need you two along with Kakashi and Asuma here in the village as I've received some Intel and need you four here to sure up Konoha's defenses with me." The third finished as he took another puff as he looked over at both.

"Wait, are you saying you want our gennin to take this mission on there own?" Kurenai stated incredulously as she gave the Hokage a flat stare while Gai could only stare at him with her.

"Good heavens no, I wouldn't allow a gennin to go unsupervised on a mission as important as this." Sarutobi shook his head at both before suddenly looking over to the door as it open, revealing a young woman with light green hair. "Lady Fuu here will be the one to lead the team as she is a capable shinobi along with one of my personal students."

Glancing over at the young woman that opened the door, almost every male's jaw dropped except for Gai, and Kurenai as well, who eyes widened hearing the third mention one of his students. She was drop dead gorgeous!

Her skin was slightly tanned while her clothing barely left anything to imagination as they hugged tightly to her curves. Her hair, held up by slightly by a golden pin on the right side, flowed to her shoulders and covered her ears. While her chest was small, her figure more then helped boost her up in their opinions.

Her eyes pinkish-orange eyes gazed over them gazed over them before she sighed, glad that her pack was behind her as almost each guy was trying to check her ass out. Turning to the Hokage, she noticed he was as well.

Coughing to get all of their attention away from her body, Fuu spoke. "Are these the two gennin teams you promised me, Lord Hokage? And where is the toad hermit, I thought he was apart of this mission as well."

"Did you visit the bath houses?" Sarutobi answered in what seemed to be in a very perverse tone making everyone wonder if he was serious.

However, Fuu simply nodded before shaking her head. "Yes, he wasn't there. I even took a dip to try and entice him to come by, but he still wasn't there. This boy, however..." At the end, Fuu lifted Shino up by the ear as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW... BUT MY KIKAI THOUGHT... OW, I'M SORRY OKAY!" Shino yelled out in pain while all the gennin looked at the bug user in shock, not believing he would be the one peeping in on someone.

"Something tells me he's normally not one of the men you have at the bath houses peeping, so this is only a warning." Fuu responded to his comment as she looked over to the Hokage before letting go of Shino, satisfied he learned his lesson.

The said bug user left the room immediately, glad he was let off with nothing seriously damaged. The Hokage simply shook his head before sighing. "Yes, but I'm still worried about Jiraiya, he normally never..."

"Someone mention me?" The said pervert stated as he jumped through the window and landed next to the gennin.

This was a mistake as he caught Naruto by surprise and being defensive about his power and what he was, he yelled out loud before a sudden bang was heard and Jiraiya shot off into the distance.

Looking at the smoking crater where the toad sage had landed, Fuu blinked a little before her eyes turned to the blonde haired gennin. Noticing his eyes, she froze for only a second before returning to normal before turning to the Hokage. "You didn't inform me that your village possessed that bloodline."

"We don't as it cannot be passed on to future generations. The bearer simply chooses who is next to receive it." Sarutobi responded as he knew she meant the Rinnegan from her stare at Naruto after he blasted Jiraiya out of the room.

The said hermit crawled back into the room, this time through the door, groaning the whole time. "Ow... That felt like one of Tsunade's flicks of death. Warn me before I do something like that again, sensei."

"I would, but you sudden appeared in the room and I didn't know where you were before hand as you weren't at the bath houses." Sarutobi told Jiraiya off as he rolled his eyes at his pupil.

Jiraiya, however, blinked at him before raising his eyebrow. "What do you mean, weren't at the bath houses? I was there taking notes as always, this time on Lady Fuu here. It isn't my fault she could see me or sense my presences; I'm just that good when I want to be."

Hearing this, Fuu gave over towards Jiraiya before a sudden Herculean punch connected to the side of his head, sending him through the wall. "Damn pervert..."

"Is it me, or is this trip going to be even weirder without Gai?" Tenten asked Neji, who simply nodded as he rubbed his forehead as a headache was well on the way.

It was bad enough that he had to be around Naruto and Hinata, but now this white hair pervert that seemingly couldn't keep his mouth shut and was constantly being hit by someone or something. "It seems so. This will be a long trip, if our senseis agree to it."

As if responding to his question, Kurenai spoke out to the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, if I may, I really would like to be with my team..."

"I already know Kurenai, but this will be their evaluation as Jiraiya here will be with them. If they succeed and pass Jiraiya's evaluation then when they return and are ready, I will hand out a C-rank mission to your team, if that is acceptable." The third stated as if he had already prepared an answer for her.

While not liking that she wouldn't be there with her team, Kurenai sighed before giving in knowing that the Hokage really needed her to stay for what he wanted. "Hai, Lord Hokage."

"Lord Hokage, I just have one question. What exactly is the mission objective?" Gai asked, wanting to know what his team would be helping Kurenai's team.

"They will be helping me retrieve the Horn of Shichibi." Fuu responded before the Hokage could answer the taijutsu master. This caught both jounin's and Naruto's attention. All three knew a little more of the reason why the gennin, the blonde in particular, were being sent.

Seeing their looks, Fuu quickly continued as she had more about what happened. "Normally, the Horn is in my possession at all times as I am the beast's vessel; however I left it unguarded in my office. Jiraiya has already informed me that it was only a simple thief and nothing more sinister, but there is a light chance for ninjas to be involved so that is why he is coming with us."

Picking himself out of the wall with ease and without a single injury on him, Jiraiya nodded as he noticed Naruto instantly freeze as he heard Fuu declare herself a demon vessel. "In case of an upgrade in the mission, I will send all six of you back here with Fuu as this is also an escort mission. But not to worry, there shouldn't be any problem as I've found the thief..."

"Then why in the hell do we have a mission?" Naruto stated, his eyebrow twitching as a smidge of dirt got onto his cloak and with a simple flap, it was gone.

Jiraiya nervously chuckled before his eyes started shifting around. "I... um... Had other business to attend to."

Fuu twitched at this before growling as her entire body shone with an eerie green light. "Pervert, if you got distracted by a bath house, so help me..."

"No, no! Nothing like that... For once." Jiraiya innocently stated before adding the last part as if it was normality that he got distracted by women in bath houses.

Shaking his head, knowing the reason, Sarutobi sighed deeply. "That is true Lady Fuu and is why I need to have a discussion with Jiraiya and my top jounin. ...If you would please step out and get them prepared for the mission, Jiraiya will be out soon enough. You too, Iruka."

Catching his drift and knowing it had to do with Konoha's security if the best of the best were going to be called into the meeting, Fuu nodded in understanding. "Hai, Lord Hokage. Thank you for your time and assistance once again. If there is anything my village can do for you, just ask."

Exiting the room with the gennin in suit, although not entirely pleased for different reasons, Fuu turned to the gennin as the exited the tower. "Alright you six, we'll get to introductions later once we are on the way. Please go home and inform you parents of your mission out of the village and pack proper equipment for an escort and tracking mission."

"Pack only essentials as this is should only take two weeks at max. Be at the main gate in one hour as their meeting should be over by then." Fuu requested before glancing over towards the Hokage's office, wondering what exactly was their security emergency.

As everyone nodded, both Hinata and Neji headed to the Hyuuga mansion while the rest except for Naruto quickly raced to their homes, excited about having a mission out of the village. Naruto merely stayed as he kept himself composed as he gazed at Fuu, not sure what to say.

"**You could say bend over and take it like the bitch you are.**" Kyuubi state humorously, wanting to humiliate a vessel of one of the lower beasts. She didn't care how; she just wanted the rest of the eight to know she could still beat all of them, even with an imperfect vessel.

Both Naruto and Zagger ignored the fox demon, both remembering to get her back later for her comment.

Fuu, however, was getting annoyed by the blonde's gaze and slightly disturbed by his eyes more and more. "What do you want kid? You're creeping me out just like that bug kid."

"Shino is his name." Naruto corrected her, before stretching his hand out to her. "And it is just nice to meet another demon vessel like myself."

"Ah, the Kyuubi vessel." Fuu said in understanding where he was coming from before giving him a flat stare as she slapped his hand away. "Don't take this personal, but I've ran into the rest of the vessel before and I didn't like any of them. So chances are I won't like you either. Now go get your things packed, kid."

"Kid? She isn't that much older then you from my perspective..." Zagger questioned, not processing why she was calling him a kid despite being only a few years older, maybe a little more.

"**Human emotions, don't bother analyzing them. You'll just end up malfunctioning.**" Kyuubi answered before yawning as she was quite bored and wished her vessel had listened to her and taken the bug vessel like the beast she was.

Naruto shook his head before cutting the link between the two as they were quite distracting. "The name is Naruto by the way... Just don't call me a vessel in front of my friends; I don't want them knowing yet."

Fuu simply yawned making him sight before shaking his head and flickering away leaving Fuu with a raised eyebrow. "Hm, he has some skill. Now what are you up to by sending the nine tailed vessel with me, Hokage?"

* * *

**Jutsu Translations**

Shinra Tensei - Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God

**A/N**: Well here is the second chapter. Sorry for the delay, however my flash drive was broken and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Most of this was to show more of Naruto's back ground and allow Naruto to interact with the other shinobi. If you have any questions about this chapter or just want to say have, leave them in a review and I'll get back to you, probably.

Peace Out.


	4. Chapter 3

"Wow, I pictured the village to look a little better then this." Naruto commented as they entered the Waterfall Village.

It wasn't as if the town itself seemed to be in bad shape, but the depressing mood everyone seemed to be in along with the dampness led to his conclusion as it left him with a bad vibe.

"It has always been like this. We have never been one of the stronger villages and in fact, we happen to be one of the weakest which is why we allied with Konoha as we wouldn't be able to withstand an assault from even one of the average hidden villages. …But as of lately, it has been getting bad with the constant attacks on myself." Fuu responded to Naruto's comment, knowing what he meant.

Jiraiya frowned as he knew what she meant by attacks before Lee spoke. "Attacks? Why would anyone attack such a beauty as you, Lady Fuu?"

Fuu couldn't help but smile softly before she laughed lightly at his words. "You flatter me my dear boy, but it isn't because of my beauty that they attack me. …My village has never liked me very much, but I happen to be the strongest and best suited for the task of leading the village. That led to resentment from the jounin within the village and they've been trying to overthrow me for a while."

"So it is possible that they might be behind the thief of your horn?" Neji stated as if it was a fact from what he had seen from the ninja that they had ran into so far, all of them showing contempt to Fuu.

"It is a possibility, but there are also many groups outside of the Waterfall that want to either kidnap or assassinate Fuu altogether for being a thorn in their side." Jiraiya explained before continued in a much lighter voice. "It is also possible that none of them are involved and this guy just stole the horn as it would cost a pretty penny."

"So wait," Chouji spoke up as he put everything that was said together, "If all of these are possibilities, why is this only a C-rank mission instead of being ranked higher?"

"As I said earlier, I found the thief and I know if he has skills comparable to a ninja, there is a slight chance the ones that trained him would be who he is to rendezvous with. The reason instead of one gennin team being sent to deal with this is that there could be some ninja involved, but nothing more then a few gennin." Jiraiya answered Chouji's question as they arrived at Fuu's office.

Opening the door, Fuu led them in before showing the shattered glass case that formerly held the horn of Shichibi. "This is where it was. Outside of the glass being shattered, there was no evidence of a break in leading me to believe that the thief might have had some help getting in and my request to Konoha."

Activating their Byukugan, both Hinata and Neji scanned the room to see if they noticed anything odd as Naruto and Tenten examined the shattered glass. Neji was the first to notice the window in the far back of the room slightly ajar. "Then window in the back is opened. It looks liked someone had placed a pencil in it to keep it open."

"Um… No, that was me. I threw that pencil at a jounin for disrespecting me and I guess it got stuck there and I never picked it up." Fuu stated with a flush as she realized that she was at fault there by getting overly angry at her own ninja's disobediences.

As Neji gave her a flat stare, Hinata spoke for him. "Well, that explains how he got in so easily. It also seems that he wasn't very stealthy as he knocked over many things along the way to horn. It also seems he went through many papers and drawers to find out what else was here."

"No… This is just how my office always looks. If things aren't a disorganized wreck I can't find anything and I find myself wanting to scream my lungs out." Fuu responded once again with her flush growing, getting annoyed that they kept pointing out her room's flaws.

Hinata quickly joined Neji in staring at Fuu, highly annoyed this wasn't explained before hand. Meanwhile, Tenten was paying not attention as she looked over the shattered glass before motioning Naruto over, knowing he had a keen eye as well. "Naruto, look at the cracks in the glass. It doesn't look like it was broken from the outside but the…"

"Inside… So it means this guy does have at least some ability. He might have used an earth or wind jutsu to crack it open. That would explain why most of the glass shards are outside the case instead of in it" Naruto stated as he gazed at the glass shard Tenten picked up before motioning to the rest of the shards.

Fuu narrowed her eyes as she hadn't noticed that before, but that was never her specialty. Growling to herself, Fuu was ready to leave. "Alright, that's good enough. Now, where to Jiraiya seeing that you've seen him before?"

"I saw him on the border of the Land of Fire and Land of Rice. We best get there quickly otherwise we might have a run in with an old acquaintance of mine…" At the end, Jiraiya's face became bitter at the mere thought of running into that man once again.

Raising her eyes at the bitterness in the Toad Sage's voice, Fuu had a feeling it was someone that Jiraiya knew quite personally and had betrayed his trust. The only person that came to her mind that it could be was…

Frowning as she didn't like the possibility into running into that person either, Fuu exited the door before she began ordering the six gennin. "Neji, you will take point with Jiraiya while Hinata and Naruto will take the rear. Chouji, Lee, both of you will take the flanks and Tenten and I will be in the center."

"Let's move out!"

* * *

Naruto was having a very, very difficult time not looking exactly in front of him as they ran. He twitched every time he did as his eyes always seemed to land on either Fuu's or Tenten's rear.

It wasn't helping that he thought both to be exceedingly pretty, but the fact it seemed as if they were both doing it on purpose absolutely killing him. And to make things worse, Hinata could tell were he was looking at and she was giving him an extremely nasty glare each time he did so.

"This isn't my day… And tomorrow isn't looking too good either." Naruto complained to himself as he rubbed his hand over his face as he looked forward once again and Hinata glared a hole into his soul.

Giggling at the way Naruto was cringing, Hinata felt better as it seemed Naruto really didn't want to be caught in the position he was in. Still, she had to watch out for this Tenten. It seemed that she knew Naruto very well and she did not like that on bit that Naruto had the same kind of relationship he had with her, Ino and Sakura.

"We're here!" Jiraiya announced as he jumped down onto a road from the trees.

Everyone followed suite as they noticed the badly concealed camp. Examining its remains, no one could really tell a thing as there wasn't a clue in what direction he was heading.

"**Humph. That bastard's scent is heading into the Land of Rice, only a half a day ahead of you if you keep moving at the pace your group is. Now get going and make this mission exciting.**" Kyuubi suddenly stated within Naruto's mind as she was getting bored with the pitiful tracking and wanted to have a good fight.

"Affirmative. It seems that he has some accomplices with him so be warned." Zagger added on only for Kyuubi to growl loudly.

Frowning as he didn't know how Kyuubi did that, Naruto growled to himself as he had a feeling that she had some sort of control over his senses and he didn't like that at all. Then again, so did Zagger and it was possible that Kyuubi had asked him to have some control.

Shaking his head as it didn't matter at the moment, but he reminded himself to ask them when he was back home, Naruto relayed what he had learned. "His scent is heading into the land of Rice and is about a few hours ahead if we hurry… And it seems that there are a few people with him."

Jiraiya frowned as he heard this, knowing Naruto didn't have the ability to pick up people's scents. And even if he did, he doubted he would have that powerful of a sense of smell. No, this information had come from the fox demon and he wasn't too sure he should believe it.

But then there was the fact that he did have the artificial life form in his head and Kyuubi wouldn't lead Naruto to his death due to the seal. Still, he didn't like the idea that the fox was helping them at all.

Shaking his head of that for now, Jiraiya nodded before gazing into the Land of Rice and cursing to himself. Oh how he hoped he wasn't involved. If he was, things were about to escalate. "Alright, let's be careful. I doubt the others will be that much of a threat but be careful."

And once more, Jiraiya and Neji were in the lead and the formation quickly formed. And Naruto was at the rear, adverting his gaze from the two in front of him, not wanting any more nasty glares from Hinata.

Fuu couldn't help but smirk a little. She knew the boy was interested just as every other male but unlike many others, he at least was trying his best not to not look at them. It also could be that the Hyuuga beside him was glaring at him every time he did look, but something told her that he would be doing the same even if the pervert was beside him.

Shaking her head, she looked over at Tenten before smiling as he knew that at times Naruto's gaze was landing on her. "So, how do you like the blonde, Naruto I believe?"

The question completely caught Tenten off guard and she stumbled a bit before regaining her footing. She thought she head Naruto cursing behind her, but she wasn't sure why he would do that unless he could hear them, but due to how fast they were traveling and how quietly Fuu had spoke, she doubted it.

"Um, by what do you mean?" Tenten asked as a small blush crept onto her face at Fuu's question, hoping it didn't mean what she thought it did.

This caused Fuu's smile to transform into a smirk as she knew the tanned skin girl had some feelings for the blonde. 'Ah, now I get why he said that to me earlier. He was afraid everyone's opinion of him would change if they knew, more importantly the girls. Hm, I wonder how he managed to get them all to like him now.'

"Oh, you know." Fuu chirped in a very suggestive manner making Tenten blush even more.

She could tell what Fuu was trying to do and she turned a little back to see Naruto adverting his eyes in every single direction. Frowning as she had a feeling he was looking at her every now and then, she shook her head. "He's a very good friend that I happen to like a lot. If you are insinuating that I like him that way, I can't say no as I have gone out on a few dates with him."

"Dates? Oh, are you two going out?" Fuu suddenly struck as her smirk grew from ear to ear.

Tenten blushed furiously before quickly shaking her head before Hinata suddenly spoke, trying to defend Naruto as he was blushing as bad as Tenten being able to hear the conversation now. "No, he just happens to like taking all of us out. Ino and Sakura would say the same if they were hear now."

Grinning even more, Fuu looked back as she gazed at Naruto. "Oh, so you're indecisive is that it? No wonder why you came onto me yesterday."

Feeling the glares of Hinata and Tenten trying to burn holes through his skull, Naruto blushed feverishly before growling lightly. "Look, I did not come onto yesterday. And just to set the record straight, yes I take them on dates but I also take my friends out to eat daily too."

"Yes, but I bet it isn't as romantic." Fuu grinned as she tried to keep herself from snickering at the look on the blonde's face and at that matter, both Hinata's and Tenten's.

None of them said a thing as both Hinata and Naruto trailed behind a little while Tenten instantly turned his vision in front, not wanting to talk any more.

Fuu only snapped her fingers, no longer having an opportunity to jab at them a little longer to burn some time before they neared their target. 'Oh well, at least I got a little about him. Hm, I wonder if the Hokage expected me to fall for this 'charm' he seems to have.'

In front, Jiraiya could only shake his head as he heard the entire thing. 'Damn lucky brat… What I wouldn't do to put myself in his shoes…'

* * *

A few hours later, they were closing in on their target as Neji and Hinata had spotted them. They hadn't moved since they did as Jiraiya had ordered them to stop and told both the Hyuuga's to scout the area as he had a bad feeling about this.

This was way too close to one of his old teammate's bases. He had a really, really bad feeling that Orochimaru was involved in this and that was the last thing he wanted. To make things even worse, both Hinata and Neji were finished scanning the area.

"There indeed is three other people with the thief and they seem to be ninja, but nothing more then gennin. It seems that they are camping for the night and have set up some traps. Nothing that we can't avoid or disarm, but it looks like they are going to use a shift." Neji stated as he watched the camp through his Byukugan.

"The man is carrying the horn in his pack, not even keeping it in a scroll so it will be no problem to pick pocket it from him. Problem is; if we startle them we could start a fight." Hinata added on in a timid tone as she shivered, thinking of everything bad that could happen.

Taking all of this in, Jiraiya closed his eyes as the thought of a plan to use. However, there was one critical detail that kept bugging him. "What is the insignia on their headband?"

"It is strange," Neji stated as he took a look at the headband with his Byukugan, "I've never seen one like it before. Either it is from a new village or one that I do not know about. It looks like a musical note. I, however, am not sure what type as I've never really studied music before."

Sighing as he heard this, Jiraiya knew his old comrade was involved in this somehow as that emblem was definitely one of his village. Still, with no signs of him in the area it meant his intervention was very low meaning this still was a C-rank mission and capable of being completed by the six before him.

"Alright, that's all I need. Hinata, I want you to lead your team around the traps and into the camp first from the east. Neji, I want you to do the same except from the west and have your team to stand by in order to assist. Both Lady Fuu and I will stand guard as I still have a bad feeling about this. Be warned, these gennin are from the sound village and we are unsure what their specialties are so take caution." Jiraiya commanded as he began to scan the area himself.

This didn't escape any of them, making Fuu frown as she began scanning the area herself. If this was indeed a trap to capture her, she was glad the pervert was among them. Even if he was an unscrupulous pervert, he was a well respect shinobi and one that not very many wanted to take a chance against.

Nodding at what they had to do, Hinata activated her Byukugan once more as she led them closer to the camp, avoiding each of the traps. Neji did the same for his team, just in the opposite direction.

As they were sneaking through, Jiraiya crept closer with Fuu to the south. His eyes were pealed opened, looking for anything he could see that was suspicious. This didn't look like a trap the Akatsuki would set up, especially as Orochimaru's ninja were involved. But then again, the snake could still be working for them for all he knew.

"I don't like this." Fuu started as she gazed the area, believing this to be a trap as well. "This all seems out of place. Even sending only two gennin teams doesn't make any sense if they are involved…"

"Lady Fuu, I doubt they are. These ninja are apart of a newly developed village, one created by an old friend of mine. My old, traitorous teammate. As of now, the Akatsuki don't want anything from him except his head so I doubt they would be working together." Jiraiya quietly stated as they were nearing the camp to keep a look out on the gennin and for anything out of the ordinary.

Over on the east side of the camp, just staying out of eye sight, team eight was currently going over their options, keeping their voices extremely low.

"Okay, let's bust in there and get that horn back." Naruto quietly spoke as his eyes gazed at the man he knew to have the horn.

"I don't think that is a good idea. If we could just get in quickly…" Hinata tried to explain before Chouji shook his head.

"No, we don't have anyone that fast. Even if Naruto were to use his pull to try and bring the horn to us, we will be spotted." Chouji cut Hinata off as he kept one of his eyes firmly on the camp, watching to see if any of the gennin were going to make a move.

Nodding in agreement, Naruto gazed over towards the camp. "I agree. We aren't made to be stealth and tracking team. We are a quick hitting assault team that is meant to leave the enemy dazed and disoriented."

Sighing to herself, as her teammates did have a point, Hinata knew she had to give in. She just couldn't help but think something bad was going to happen. It was just then a small ring caught her attention before Naruto suddenly collapsed, grabbing his ear.

"AH! FUCK! THEY KNOW WE'RE HERE!" Naruto yelled out as blood slowly began to drip out of his ear as his entire body shook as the sound resonated throughout his body.

One of the opposing gennin merely chuckled as he stood up quickly followed by the others, while the robber looked at them in confusion. "Good one, Dosu. They didn't even see it coming."

Both Chouji and Hinata were both on the defensive as they noticed all three gennin were approaching them. For now, they knew Naruto would be immobilized as whatever that attack was had severely crippled him.

Dosu, the gennin whose face was covered with strips of bandages, smirked before he struck the ground in front of both Chouji and Hinata. "Hmp, you three should learn not to speak in a stealth mission. I heard you long before you even got here."

Hearing the ringing that busted his ear once more, Naruto wasn't sure what it was until Zagger began screaming in his head. "SHIT! IT IS A SOUND WAVE ATTACK DESIGNED TO DISRUPT AND POSSIBLY EVEN MOBILIZE AN OPPONENT THAT HE CAN CONTROL WITH HIS CHAKRA!"

This was all Naruto needed to hear before he yelled out, despite his condition. "Keep moving! He's using sound waves!"

In an instant, both Hinata and Chouji jumped away, leaving Dosu without a target other then the blonde. So instead, he used his only other visible target and in an instant Naruto was screaming again as his other eardrum had busted as he was still immobile from the previous attack.

"Oh, we have a smart one. Guess we should keep this one disoriented so he can't figure out what's going on, right guys?" The girl stated before throwing dozens of senbon with bells and strings attacked to them around Naruto.

Even if he could have used Shinra Tensei to reflect them, none of them were aimed at him making Naruto wonder what she was planning. Then he realized what she had done as everything began to become a blur and he swore he was seeing double if not triple over everything.

'Shit, this isn't my day. Not only can I not hear, but I can't see either.' Naruto complained to himself. as he was basically out of this fight from the start.

"This doesn't look good; however, I've found a flaw with her attack. It isn't affecting you to its full effect because of the damage to your ears. If someone were to get rid of them…" Zagger analyzed through what he had seen through his host's eyes.

'Or if I was able to recover myself enough I could blast them away with Shinra Tensei.' Naruto got the idea as he began trying to regain control of his body, despite the obvious issues at hand.

"That is the jist of it. However, at this rate you will have to wait nearly ten minutes as that sound wave is causing chaos in your body making it hard for Kyuubi to heal any of the damage." The AI stated as he was checking to see if there was any way around this as Naruto's teammates needed his help.

Outside, Dosu stood tall as both his team had surrounded Chouji and Hinata. "Well, now that we've got you cornered it is time to finish this. Kin, Zaku, take them out."

"KONOHA DAISENPU!" Lee suddenly yelled out a split second before a green blur appeared before Dosu and kicked across the chest followed by a second lighting fast kick to his lower stomach, nearly the groin.

Dosu literally skipped off the ground a few times before skidding to a stop, tearing the ground away as Lee stopped where the Sound Gennin. This had caught both Kin and Zaku off guard, so they were barely able to avoid the attacks Chouji and Hinata were setting up as Tenten cut the lines and bells that were keeping Naruto pinned.

"Are you okay?!" She asked worriedly as she hadn't seen Naruto like this before.

Stumbling as he attempted to stand up, Naruto shook his head as he took deep breathes. He almost hadn't heard her, but thanks to Zagger's presence he was able to catch what she had said and answered her. "I still need a few minutes… That guy's attack is still affecting my nervous system."

Glad that Naruto was able to hear her, somehow despite both of his ears flowing with blood, Tenten nodded before standing in front of him. "Fine, I'll protect you till you can stand on your own. Neji's chasing down the thief with Lady Fuu and Jiraiya, so this should be over fast."

Getting up from Lee's devastating attack, Dosu grimaced as his entire body felt numb from just his two blows. Shaking that off as he had dealt with worse, Dosu slammed his arm against a nearby tree before gazing towards his new opponents. "Reinforcements, eh? Fine, we'll take you as well. Or leader wants that horn and I'll be damned if we fail him again."

"Lee, move! He uses sound…" Hinata tried to yell at Lee but was picked up as a sudden burst of powerful wind knocked her back and sent her flying along with Chouji as Zaku raised his palms towards them.

"Oh, no! I'm not going to let you reveal our secrets to these guys too! Zanhuka!" Zaku yelled before unleashing yet another blaster of powerful and cutting wind towards them.

Even though he was unable to decipher fully what Hinata had said, Lee jumped to the side before suddenly charging Dosu. He had noticed that something invisible had knocked Naruto out of the fight so he knew something was up with this gennin and wasn't going to give him the time to attack him.

Cursing, Dosu was on the wrong end of the barrage as Lee delivered punch after punch and kick after kick without slowing. The green wearing fighter was a menace and he had to get out of close range otherwise this fight would be over quickly.

However, he was saved the trouble when Lee hit his music arm. Controlling the pitch with his chakra, he focused it to the green beast ear forcing Lee to stop from the sudden pain, making him drop to his knees. With one kick, he sent him sliding before Kin suddenly pinned him with the same trick she had inflicted onto Naruto.

"Zaku, finish him!" Both yelled out, seeing the boy was dazed but still wasn't out. They obviously had deemed him a threat and if he got free trouble would be quick to follow.

Seeing the green beast stagger, Zaku knew what he had to do so with one blast, he knocked moved Hinata and Chouji besides him before smirking as he molded as much chakra as he could to his arms, wanting to end this battle once and for all. "Say nighty, night!"

Tenten attempted to intercept him, but Kin was ready and tackled the girl before she could move to save them, turning it into a brawl. While Tenten was sure she could win, it would take a few moments and there wasn't any time for that as Zaku screamed out. "Zankukyokuha!"

"NO!" Naruto yelled out and in an instant, he regained control of his body despite all his muscle and organs protesting the movement.

It caused him great pain, but he suddenly appeared in front of his teammates and Lee with his palms out stretched. Never before had he felt this focused. It was as if he had tunnel vision as he focused purely on his opponent before him and the attack he had unleashed.

Mustering as much chakra as he could, Naruto's Rinnegan began to glow bright red as Kyuubi's chakra began mixing with his. "Shinra… TENSEI!"

The next moment had literally made everyone stop what they were doing, including Neji, Jiraiya and Fuu as they had just recovered the horn form the thief.

At first, it seemed nothing had happened. Then it happened in a blink. The powerful slicing wind Zaku had summoned to put down the three Konoha shinobi was suddenly battling with and invisible force, trying to gain position. However, that only lasted for a second.

It was completely overwhelmed as the ground itself was torn away as the power of Naruto's attack was just too strong. The trees around were ripped out of the ground, roots and all as every single leaf was stripped from the branches before they snapped off. Then time seemingly sped up as the three gennin were suddenly enveloped by the blast, Tenten being spared the attack by a red and white blur.

As the dust settled, there wasn't even a clearing left. All there was left was an extending crater from where Naruto had used his gravity push to save his teammates. There was no sign of any of the three gennin, either they had been obliterated or were driven deep into the ground from the blast.

No one could believe what they had just saw, even Lee as the force of the attack had broken all of the bells and needles keeping his vision doubled. The amount of destruction caused scared him a little, but what he was impressed by was the fact that Naruto seemingly summoned this power just for their protection. That alone earned his trust.

Neji was stunned as he had thought to have narrowed the gap between the blonde and himself. This only proved the gap was so much further then he had ever thought and he wasn't sure if he could ever gain if this was how strong the blonde truly was. To be honest, he didn't really want to be on his bad side any longer as he couldn't afford to have an enemy like this.

Tenten was utterly shocked as she was almost caught in that blast and was barely saved by the toad sannin. While she knew he hadn't meant to do this amount of damage, it was quite frightening that she was nearly a splat in the ground from his attack.

Hinata couldn't believe what she had seen. She had seen that attack before as he had been working on it, but never did she believe that he was telling the truth that it had the capacity to destroy an entire forest or village. But now… She only shivered. He was telling the truth.

Chouji's jaw was slacked. He had seen him use that jutsu many times over yet never with this outcome. Sure, he had caused some extreme damage before and had sent himself to the hospital on a few occasions, but this was ridiculous. Was this truly the power of the Rinnegan? If it was… Naruto very well could see his dreams unfold.

Jiraiya wasn't too horribly stunned as he knew this was possible. But still, to see the amount of devastation… He really had his work cut out for him if he was going to try and teach this kid anything.

The most stunned out of all of them was Fuu. While she had sensed that the fox's chakra had mixed with his, it was barely anything compared to what it truly could give him. If that attack was focused with just two tails, the damage that could be caused baffled her. This boy… really could be the perfect vessel if he could use the demon's chakra that efficiently.

However, everyone's attention was suddenly brought to someone clapping as Naruto fell to his knees, drained from his attack. "My, that was a show. I am so glad sensei sent out the boy. I was so looking forward to see what the newest Rinnegan user could do and I wasn't disappointed."

In an instant, Jiraiya was in front of Naruto, ready to battle as he knew who the voice belong to all too well. "OROCHIMARU! Show yourself!"

Just as Jiraiya commanded, dozens of snakes slithered together and formed into the snake sannin, smirking as he looked over at his teammate. "Ah, it is good to see you again Jiraiya. Pity you had to be sent here too. I was really looking forward to claiming a trump card over the Akatsuki."

Holding his ground and not saying a word, Jiraiya simply kept his eyes on the snake before the other sannin pulled his three gennin out of the dirt, all looking like they were rolled over by a five ton elephant. "Ah, well. These three served their purpose for today. I guess I'll be seeing you later, my old friend."

"I doubt that snake because today it will be all over for you." Jiraiya countered as he was ready to unleash his full power to combat his old teammate.

This only made Orochimaru cackle before he wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh, I doubt it. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't know half of what you do about the Akatsuki."

"What?!" Jiraiya suddenly stopped in surprise as he heard this, not sure how to take it.

Orochimaru only cackled even louder before his snake eyes gazed over Fuu then Naruto before they finally landed back to him. "Honestly, were do you think your spies get their information on the Akatsuki from? Like it or not, we have a common enemy. So it is better we work with each other for now. After all, we can always kill each other later."

Before Jiraiya could even utter another syllable the snake disappeared with his three injured gennin, leaving everyone quite confused at what just happened.

Clutching his hands tightly, Jiraiya refrained from cursing out. How could he have not known that Orochimaru had been giving him information on the Akatsuki? He had more information on them then anyone else and the information he was getting was far too accurate to be gathered by people outside the organization.

Hearing Naruto collapsed behind him, the blonde having over exerted himself, Jiraiya sighed before he lifted the blonde onto his back before motioned to everyone to get back into formation. "We're heading back to the Waterfall on the double. I rather not stick around and see who else was watching this."

No one argued as they did as they were ordered and started marching back to Fuu's village. The said village leader, however, was gazing at the unconscious blonde with more curiosity then ever.

'Really old man, what are you thinking? Are you trying to show off or something or is this something more? …Hm… Or is it that you want to show me that there is at least another like myself that I could get along with?'

* * *

On top of one of the tallest trees in the area, one individual watched the entire scene. No one could be sure what the person was thinking as his face was covered by an orange mask.

However, by his amused chuckled one could tell that he was highly amused. "So it seems the other with the Rinnegan is a vessel. Very interesting… This could play out to my favor. I just need to make sure everything goes according to plan. But first, it is nearly time for her to be captured. Best call in Pein for this one."

And just like that, the man was gone only leaving behind an orange swirl that seemed eerily similar to the mask that he had been wearing.

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry for the late update, I just have been having a hard time writing over the holidays. There should be some updates coming up after this on some of my other stories, but we'll see. The pairing really hasn't been determined, but I do have a clear cut goal for it but we'll see if that happens.

If there is anything you don't understand or you just want to say hi, drop me a review. Peace Out.


	5. Chapter 4

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**Chapter 4**

* * *

"So, what happened back there Jiraiya?" Fuu asked as they had made it back to her village within the night. The rest of the gennin were sent to a hotel to sleep as the best medics in the Waterfall took care of Naruto's chakra depletion.

Sitting just outside the room with Naruto in it while having a good view of the hotel to make sure no one snuck in to do anything to the ret, Jiraiya sighed as put away his pen and scroll. "Nothing that you haven't already figured out, Lady Fuu. It was an error on my part bringing two gennin teams as if I knew he was involved…"

Seeing the toad sannin clench his fists, Fuu shook her head as she sat besides him before uncorking a bottle of sake and taking a swig. "That's not what I meant. I wanted to know how blonde here was able to control the fox's chakra to such a degree… He was only using a fragment of the demon's power, not even a tail's worth and still caused that amount of devastation… Has Konoha been creating a weapon?"

Jiraiya snorted at her question, but it was well appreciated as it got his mind off of his old teammate showing up as everything winded down. "You should know better then that. Sensei opposes it and as long as he is in office and not Danzo, we will never create a living weapon. …No, Naruto somehow managed to subdue the chakra for protecting his friends alone."

'But that makes me wonder… Did his AI have anything to do with the fluid transfer of chakra and power? That would explain how he was able to use it so effectively.' Jiraiya thought as he let his mind wander to Naruto's Shinra Tensei.

Fuu frowned at Jiraiya's response, knowing better then to believe that entirely. "That is a load of bull, sage. The only way a demon vessel can subdue their demon's chakra is if they are on good terms with one another and if they have a similar mind set. So you expect me that blonde has anything in common with the blood thirsty fox that loves to dominate whatever is weaker then it is."

Shrugging his shoulders, Jiraiya picked up the scroll he was writing on and examined it before rolling it up and summoning a small toad. "Take this to the third, Gamagichi. He needs to know what happened here."

The small toad nodded before disappearing in a plum before Jiraiya turned to Fuu, who was angered that he had ignored her. "Whether you believe it or not that is what happened, Lady Fuu. I agree that the demon is all of what you said, but Naruto is able to keep the demon under check and draw out less power then any vessel I have seen and use it more effectively. It may be because of the Rinnegan, maybe it isn't. No one knows."

Looking at the sannin, Fuu sighed before taking a deep swig of sake. "I see… One more thing before you go… What is with that boy? Ever since the Hokage sent him on this mission, I've gotten the feeling he sent him for a reason… And I'm not sure what."

Smirking as he could see the young woman was extraordinarily frustrated as the young blonde was eating at her emotional defenses, Jiraiya shrugged. "I have no real clue. All I know is that boy could befriend a cold blooded killer and turn him to the light in time. …He is just like that… And I suppose a lot of people just don't want to be on his bad side as he has a lot of dirt on everyone."

This made Fuu look at him strangely before she sighed as he jumped down and headed to the hotel, probably to get some rest. Sighing before finishing off the bottle, Fuu looked into the room to see the sleeping blonde lying sound asleep. There was just something about him that she couldn't put a finger on, but it was a quality that made him… Well, tolerable unlike the rest of the vessels she had met.

"Dammit, I must be getting soft." Fuu commented to herself before she jumped down and headed to her home. "Well, it could be worse. I could have done what the bug told me to do. …That would have been very awkward as I prefer older men."

* * *

After waking and being released by the medics, Naruto found the next hour to quickly pass by and found himself before the entrance of the Waterfall. He was somewhat fuzzy on what happened on the mission, but he was slowly filled in by everyone.

'I can't believe I was able to use Shinra Tensei like that… I've been trying to do that for months, almost a year now, but now I suddenly use it like that to that magnitude? How is that possible?' Naruto wondered as he scratched his head as he was unsure if he could repeat such a feat.

"The only thing I can come up with is that in desperation, you found yourself in a zone and it caused you to be able to temporarily master the jutsu. However, when we get back I want to see if we can duplicate it with smaller amounts of force." Zagger responded to Naruto's questions as the AI was analyzing the fight over and over to see if there was something that triggered it.

Nodding as Zagger had a point, Naruto's attention was suddenly brought to Hinata and Tenten, who were currently by themselves talking quietly to make sure no one was listening in on them. Absently wondering what they were talking about, he tried to move closer only for both of them to glare at him before shuffling away.

Figuring it was some girl thing that he wouldn't understand for a few more years, Naruto decided not to pursue and looked around. He noted that Lee was doing one handed push-ups, alternating his hand every ten, while Chouji snacked on a bag of chips, who knew where he got them from and Neji simply leaned on the side of the gate as they waited for Jiraiya to arrive.

Feeling everyone was leaving him out, Naruto groaned as he was getting bored as no one was talking to him. "Dammit… Where is Jiraiya? I would like to get home before Kakashi suddenly appears for no reason and comes up with some lame ass excuse explaining why he's late."

While no one knew Kakashi personally, Gai's students could only nod as they knew the silver haired jounin seemed to be late for everything and had really bad excuses, hearing him give Gai a few of them.

Shaking his head, Neji stood from the gate before his eyes bulged for a second before sighing as they returned to normal. "He's there… On that flag pole looking into the… Wrong side of the bath house." He said at the end with slight disgust in his voice as he knew exactly what the man was doing.

Knowing Jiraiya's perverseness already, Naruto twitched before he simply turned towards the flag pole before holding out his hand. 'Fuck waiting till we get home to duplicate it. Let's try it here.'

"**Yes! Cause destruction and mayhem!**" Kyuubi cackled leaving Zagger to simply sigh as understanding human thoughts, or a demon's at that, was just beyond him. He could understand emotions and motives, but not how they arrived at their conclusions.

As he began to focus and prepare for his Shinra Tensei, Naruto noticed that his vision almost seemed to focus into a straight path, almost like that of tunnel vision. Gathering a small amount of chakra, making sure the force would be enough to knock the pole out of the ground, he let go and his vision returned.

The next moment, the pole groaned before snapping from the gravitational force placed onto it. A moment later, there was a sudden and surprised scream as Jiraiya hit the ground before he started screaming as the pole landed on top of him, hitting him right between the legs.

Everyone that saw it cringed, even Naruto despite the fact that he had been the one to cause the said event. It just looked frighteningly painful.

"Ah, peeping again pervert?" Fuu's voice echoed before the village leader of the Waterfall appeared in a plum of smoke before she glared at the downed sannin. "Well I hope that teaches you a lesson. Don't keep your team waiting just to make a small profit."

Jiraiya simply groaned in response, wiggling around and writhing in pain. Shaking her head, Fuu turned to the six gennin before bowing ever so slightly. "Thank you all for your help. It's not much, but it is all I can do outside of the payment of the mission. …Naruto, I do, however, have something you might find interesting."

Looking somewhat surprised, Naruto stepped to Fuu with a curious look as he tried to figure out what she had. Honestly he didn't think he did that much more work then the rest of the team, but maybe it was something different or relating to their demons…

Slightly smiling, Fuu shook her head. She had no clue why but she felt she owed a little to him as she put them in danger and he had rescued them. And seeing that she could tolerate him compared to the others, she didn't mind giving him the gift she had.

Pulling out a scroll, she removed what seemed to be a very large fang that was nearly a foot in length. "Here, take this. I found it near Konoha years ago… It is one of Kyuubi's fangs, I believe. I thought it would be a good gift, seeing you are from Konoha and all."

Naruto instantly understood why she was giving him this. She knew he was the nine tails vessel and that this would have some value to him and to his demon. "Thank you… I'll treasure it."

Her smile widening just a little, Fuu then leaned down and surprised Naruto as she kissed him softly on the cheek before whispering. "Keep it with you at all. It may just save your life one day."

Still thrown by the kiss, Naruto only nodded his head ever so slightly as he somehow managed to catch what she had said. Fuu couldn't help but grin at his reaction waving to the rest. "Well I got to get back to work, so this is goodbye. Have a safe trip back and stay out of trouble, especially you."

At the end she purposely pointed at Naruto, who looked indignity at her for a moment before smiling back as she disappeared, probably to her office to conquer the bane of most village leader's existence.

Turning to the group, Naruto suddenly felt two death glares bearing down upon him as Hinata and Tenten's eyes looked with his. He could only grimace in a comical fashion as he didn't understand what he did wrong.

His trip home was not going to be very safe.

* * *

"I see…" Sarutobi softly spoke as Jiraiya had finished giving him the report with the gennin and senseis in the room.

Sighing as Orochimaru was apart of what happened, he honestly didn't know what to do know. There was no doubt that snake was a threat to the village but at the same time he was also helping them by giving them information on the Akatsuki. He simply was a double edge sword and could suddenly be the cause of their downfall.

Rubbing his forehead as he put that out of his mind of now, planning to speak with Jiraiya and his top advisers about it later, he switched his thoughts to Kurenai's request. From what Orochimaru had said, he was seeking out Naruto to be a trump card against the Akatsuki. So letting him out was a bad idea…

On the same token, he was after many things so letting mostly everyone and anything out of Konoha near his whereabouts was a bad idea. And he would also be punishing the team for giving an outstanding performance in a dangerous mission.

That weighed his decision down as they were very deserving to leave the village on C-rank missions, just as Gai's team was. And what was the harm in letting them out every now and then. He let Jiraiya roam around and almost every woman in the world has Jiraiya on their hit list.

"Kurenai, for now you and your team will stay here in Konoha for a few weeks just to let this clear up. After that, I'll allow your team on C-rank missions." Sarutobi stated as he came to a decision that pleased not only his worries but would please them as well.

"That's fine with me. A think they need a little break after having a run in with an S-rank criminal." Kurenai responded, somewhat relived that she could still take them out despite what had just happened.

However, she knew she would have to train them harder then before as she could not afford any mistakes if the snake came for Naruto. She knew she stood no chance against him, but the least she could do would be to stall and allow her team to get far enough away so the snake wouldn't pursue.

"Good, both you and Gai are dismissed as are your teams. Jiraiya, I would like to talk to you." Sarutobi spoke as he waved for them to leave.

After a quick bow, Naruto turned and left immediately as he didn't plan on giving any time for Kurenai or anyone else to speak with him. While it wasn't in spite, well for Hinata and Tenten it was as they refused to talk to him on the way back, he really didn't want to talk right now. He finally made a breakthrough and he was going to be damned that he wasn't going to work on it.

Soon as he left the room, he body flickered away leaving Kurenai frowning as she really wanted to talk to her team. "Well that was rude. What was that about anyway?"

"Breakthrough." Chouji answered simply which made Kurenai look at him oddly.

Sighing and shaking his head, Chouji took out a bag of chips that he seemingly store in his pocket somehow before speaking. "He was finally able to focus Shinra Tensei on a single point for the first time and again later on when Jiraiya was peeping on women in the bath house."

Seeing Kurenai grin somewhat at what Naruto did for that, Chouji continued. "He probably wants to get to work on it as fast as he can so he can use its fullest potential again. He did that to Ino, Shikamaru and I a lot as he would discover something about his techniques and run off to test them. He means no harm by it."

Feeling a little better, having seen Naruto do such before, Kurenai nodded before her attention was suddenly drawn to Neji. "That's only part of it. The other part is these two," Nodding his head towards Hinata and Tenten, Neji continued, "Decided to treat him like a pariah on the entire way back. I know I would want to depart quickly if my friends treated me the same way."

As soon as he finished, Hinata grimaced while Tenten simply looked down. Neither wanted to admit it, but they were extremely jealous of Fuu kissing him and focused their anger on him as she wasn't available. Still, they both knew it was wrong for them to not even speak to him on the way back.

"Ah, I see. So Lady Fuu kissed him then." Kurenai said all-knowingly as she looked at the two girls with a tilted head and her finger at her lips.

Both Hinata and Tenten looked horrified that she was able to figure that out so easily. No one else had figured out why they hadn't said a word, but then again everyone else around them until just now were guys…

Kurenai only laughed at their reactions before shaking her head at them. "Oh come on, I was your age too, you know. I know the whole bit very well and girls get easily jealous when the object of their affect is kissed by another girl, even if it isn't romantically, and normally take their anger out on the boy as it isn't possible to take it out on the girl."

Hinata simply became more horrified at her senseis words, knowing them to be true as that was exactly what happened. Tenten however objected. Loudly. "I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH NARUTO! I JUST SIMPLY LIKE HIM! AS A FRIEND! THAT'S ALL! NOTHING ELSE! NOTHING!"

Kurenai just busted out laughing as that made it even more obvious for her. Even Gai was chuckling at his student as he could tell she was in denial. But as soon as her head turned to him, his face straightened as he turned to Neji and Lee, knowing his time here was limited. "So my youthful students, I think I shall be off! I have a match against my eternal rival that I must not miss!"

There wasn't even enough time for Lee and Gai to start their normal routine as Gai flat out ran out of their so fast that he simply disappeared. Lee would be disappointed with him, but he knew not to anger women that much, especially when they had pinpoint aim and could castrate you with one well aimed throw.

Sighing as she planted a hand on her hip and shook her head, Kurenai sighed before she looked over the two girls. "Well, I'm going to check up on him as I've got to make sure and today technically would be his day on the schedule. …However, Hinata, Tenten; the next time you both see him I want you to apologize."

As Tenten opened her mouth to object, feeling they had did nothing wrong, Kurenai immediately cut her off with a stern gaze. "No, you must apologize to him. …He is extraordinarily fragile, whether you believe it or not. Words, or in this case no one speaking to him, hurt him more then any broken bone or wound."

All the gennin except one looked confused as to why that may be. The only one that knew why immediately was Chouji. "Yeah… He really has had a rough life as almost no one treats him with any respect and the few that do get ridiculed and hurt because of their connections with him. And because of that he tries to separate himself from all those he cares about so not to hurt them."

Feeling even more ashamed of their actions, Hinata and Tenten were ready to hunt Naruto down and apologize to them when Lee spoke. "But why? Naruto is a good person with a very fiery spirit. I noticed that he was ignored and picked on a lot in classes like I was, but unlike me he was tops in almost everything."

"Unless we ask Naruto, none of us will know. To be honest, I don't care that much but I do find it disturbing that such a force is treated with so little respect. It is a very dangerous game as he could snap and from what we saw against those Sound ninja… He could cause a lot of damage before anyone could bring him down." Neji responded with a mix of indifference and a small amount of reverence.

Nodding as that was the truth, Kurenai was about to embark on her quest to seek out Naruto's training grounds when she stopped and realized she had no clue where he trained on his own. Sighing, she turned to Chouji and brushed her hand through her hair. "You mind showing me where he normally trains?"

Chouji simply shrugged at her question. "Ask the white cloaked Anbu. He is one of the few that knows where it is located and the only reason he says that because it is a good place for him to train his special abilities. …That and he takes Naruto to the hospital the most outside of Kakashi."

Kurenai's jaw dropped as she knew who the white cloaked Anbu was and knew what his ability was. The fact that Yamato was there using the Mokuton(Wood) meant that Naruto, on a normal basis, cleared out a good portion of forest and he grew it back to give Naruto his targets back and to test his limits compared to the First Hokage.

Grumbling, Kurenai was about to set out to find Yamato or Kakashi when she suddenly noticed in the corner of her eye a huge cloud of dust and debris. "Never mind… I found it. …I feel sorry for Yamato as that is going to be a test of his limit if he keeps that up."

Before anyone could ask what she had just seen, Kurenai flickered away in a swirl of leaves and appeared in the dust filled crater. And as soon as she did she was forced to defend against Naruto as he threw a kunai straight for her jugular.

Easily catching it, Kurenai was about to yell out what his problem when she found herself knocked down by what she knew to be Shinra Tensei. Trying to get up from that, knowing it had been five seconds and he had apparently charged despite that blast, she froze when she felt his hand on her head.

However, it was quickly removed before Naruto sighed. "Don't try that again sensei… I get a little defensive when people suddenly show up and immediately act as a few people have tried to attack me here before. Mizuki being one of them."

"Sorry about that, I just wanted to check in and make sure you were okay." Kurenai stated as she stood up, a little frightened that Naruto's skills as he didn't let on he was this good in their training. "And I heard about Mizuki was executed for an attempted assassination against you, but I really didn't get the details…"

"It wasn't an execution." Naruto cut her off as he closed his eyes and turned away. "I ripped out his soul."

As Kurenai's face widened in fear of an ability like that, Naruto turned his gaze back to her. "You felt something odd in the back of your mind when I placed my hand on your head. You couldn't find a way to move as if something was piercing into your mind and soul." Naruto spat before looking around as the dust settled to see his latest results of Shinra Tensei.

Finding it unbelievable that a young boy could do something like that despite being a ninja and knowing he would have to kill, Kurenai trembled slightly as she found her voice. "Why would you learn something that horrible?"

"You tell me, sensei." Naruto simply answered with a rhetorical question as he knew that she knew why.

Seeing her flinch, Naruto plopped onto the ground before looking up to the sky and sighing. "I don't like it either, but I have to know something like that so that I can still defend myself if someone can get around all my other abilities. …I put all my focus into it after fighting Neji as he exposed my weaknesses and my inability to fight in close range."

"Mizuki just happened to be the first person I ever tried it on after I scanned his mind and realized he planned on killing me. In fear, I ripped his soul out on complete accident. Sure, the old man covered it up as he didn't want anyone to know that I could use something like that, but it didn't change anything."

"…I'd never been so sick in my life before that moment until I realized what could have happened to Tenten if Jiraiya hadn't been there to rescue her from my Shinra Tensei. …That is more of the reason I passed out then exhaustion. …I thought I might have killed her." Naruto said quietly, continuing to look into the sky.

Beginning to understand her student more, Kurenai's heart went out to the boy as sat beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You could have told me this before so I could have helped. I might not look it, but I do know enough to at least help you and if not, I know people that can and would willingly help you."

Shaking his head, Naruto closed his eyes as his head tilted down. "I didn't entirely trust you until just now… When I scanned your mind when you flickered in."

Feeling ticked that he happened to read her mind; Kurenai understood his reasons not to trust anyone new. "…Well now you know I mean you no harm and only want to help. …But if you ever read my mind again…"

"Trust me, I won't. …I don't like having to read anyone's mind as I get more then I want every single time." Naruto grimaced as he placed his hand on his temple as his head pulsed in pain. "I get horrible headaches after I do it as it is… difficult for one body to hold the powers I do."

"So you get feedback from you abilities? I was beginning to expect it as I noticed how you seem to back off further every time you use Shinra Tensei." Kurenai stated as she looked at her student with some worry.

"The feedback isn't too great that it would affect me too horribly much, but it becomes a problem if I use them extensively." Naruto commented as he shook his head, a minuscule wave of malevolent chakra washing over his entire body. "However, Kyuubi recovers most of them immediately so it isn't often I show it."

Having sensed the tiny fragment of the fox's chakra, Kurenai frowned as she really didn't like that he accepted its chakra so easily. However, she knew at the same time it was mutual for the two so there was nothing she could really do.

"Anyways, I just came up here to see what was wrong but I know now. …However, I do think you should get some rest. I hear Ichiraku's missed you while you were gone." Kurenai grinned knowing how to get the boy's attention off of anything else.

"Ramen? …Meh, mine as well go." He was suddenly interrupted by his stomach roaring loud enough for Kurenai to hear it and bust out laughing. Naruto only grumbled before dispersing in a flicker as he was very hungry. Besides, he was more then successful with his test.

Shinra Tensei was at full function. Now it was time to move to the next technique Zagger had set out to test his gravitation skills to their limit.

* * *

"Ugh… My head. What the hell just happened?" A young girl with black hair stated.

The entire room around her was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. Not that it was any different then any other time she awoke, the only difference was that she normally had someone answer back. Now most of the time it was Tayuya telling her to shut the fuck up, but she didn't even get that.

Becoming worried, she tried to sit up before pain racked her entire body. She nearly screamed out and tried to thrash, but found that she had been strapped down to the bedding she had been lying on.

"Now, now. Don't struggle too much. You are still recovering from the injuries you suffered from your last fight." A dark and sinister voice spoke before cackling as the room began to dimly light up thanks to the computer lights.

Knowing the voice, she was worried as this wasn't Orochimaru and struggled even more. "Kabuto you perverted fuck, let me go! …AHHHHH!" She suddenly began screaming as an even greater pain began surge through her body, dwarfing what she had felt when she had awoken.

Almost losing conscious before the pain finally subsided; Kabuto seemed to scribble some things down before tapping the computer with a pen. "Now that is interesting…"

"What is it that you have found, Kabuto?" Another voice said as a shadow appeared besides the silver haired ninja staring at the computer.

She immediately knew it was Lord Orochimaru simply from his raspy voice. However, that made her even more afraid as she knew that he conducted many experiments and if she was here…

"It seems that after being subject to a powerful blast from Shinra Tensei, the subject has gained immunity to it. …How is that possible my lord? To not be affected by gravity?" Kabuto said as he was utterly astonished by what he had found.

Freezing hearing that she was immune to whatever this Shinra Tensei was, she didn't understand what happened. Then she remember a voice… A single voice.

_She suddenly found herself before a bunch of downed Konoha gennin before she saw a blonde haired boy jumped in front of his friends just as Zaku used his most powerful attack. He wasn't too horribly beaten up, but his appearance could have been better. The blood leaking from both of his ears was a tell-tale sign to what had happened to him._

_But it was the look in his eyes that made her feel… She didn't know what she felt. She never had felt this before. It wasn't contempt as that was what she felt towards her so called team members. But she really couldn't think more as he held his arms up as if to catch Zaku's attack. However, it seemed more likely as a deep red and malevolent chakra began to surround him._

_Then she heard two words from him she could never forget._

_"Shinra… TENSEI!"_

What he said… It was the same thing that Kabuto had just mentioned. Was that what Shinra Tensei was? An attack that used gravity to repel anything from the owner.

"Kin, can you hear me?" Orochimaru's voice suddenly broke the girl's attention as she looked up at the leader of their rag-tag village.

She noticed that her straps had been taken off and she nodded as she slowly sat up, ignoring the numb pain she was in. "Yes, lord Orochimaru."

Smiling at her, Orochimaru looked over her a few more moments as if he was examining her. "You don't know how valuable you have just become… You just might be the key I have been looking for."

Not sure how to react to what he had said; Kin stayed quiet as she knew Orochimaru had a bad temperament and decided not to question what he had said. If she had somehow become important to him, it was a good thing. That meant she would get better treatment around here.

Still looking over her, Orochimaru crackled before he ran his hand over the side of her head. "From now on, I will be personally training you. You will become one of my elite warriors… One that will capture Uzumaki and bring him to me so he can become my next vessel."

And with that, Orochimaru turned and walked away, only stopping to give Kabuto his orders. "Give her a room of her own. She will no longer stay in the barracks with the other rift-raft."

Watching as he left, Kin wasn't sure what had happened… But whatever had was wonderful. …She finally was a somebody.

* * *

**Jutsu Translation**

Shinra Tensei - Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God

**A/N**: Sorry for a late chapter update. This one would have been updated quicker, but things got in the way so I had a hard time finishing the last portion. If there is any questions, leave a review or something. Peace Out.


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